Poké Wars the Convergence
by Kuroi-Uyoku
Summary: Kanta stared at the girl held in his arms. Her body was mangled, her bones broken to the point of having been turned to meal inside of her skin. The undampening had caused her death, as it must have caused the deaths of thousands more. I can't... The thought began. I won't give up. "I'll just have to change with the times." He turned to glare at the heavens. "I'll keep them safe."
1. Chapter 1 Hell

**Chapter one – Hell**

**August 16**

Kanta stood victorious again, holding his head high as the heat from his Heatran, Cadfael, and the static charge from Fiera, his Luxray, began to slowly subside, his opponent's Pokémon laying fainted on the ground as always. Two strong Pokémon who had fallen victim to the flame of a volcano and the intense lightning that came with the presence of Cadfael and Fiera, and it hadn't helped the opponent's odds that one was a Grass type and the other a Water.

The brown haired trainer sighed and looked to the other trainer apologetically as he stroked Fiera's mane, the fierce glare that he received in return however made his gaze grow a bit colder.

The younger trainers in the Hoenn Battle Tower were always a shame to beat, saddened and angered as they were, and he had made far too many of them fall from whatever height that they had reached, and after all of the fights against them, he always felt a little guilty.

As Fiera stretched, letting out a rather loud yawn, Kanta took notice of the time. It was already ten PM, and considering that he had been up since five AM, it felt as though it was getting to be very late.

He was so close to the top of the tower that he could taste his victory over the Frontier Brain of the Battle Tower, Anabel, and they would both have to fight seriously this time. But Anabel was yet another young trainer. He thought to himself, _why? Why do I seem so old in comparison to those that I battle? Am I just getting too old to be a nomadic trainer? Maybe I should settle down and become a Gym Leader soon... _These thoughts had filled the wanderer's head for quite a while.

"Thanks you two, you did great." He said as he returned his Pokémon to their balls and walked over to the young boy who was currently trying to push his Shiftry toward the large elevator and sighed. "Why not use it's Pokéball like you did with your Sharpedo?" He asked, trying his hardest to make himself sound friendly to the boy.

"He doesn't have one!" The boy screamed, whirling around to face Kanta directly, allowing the scarf that all ninja children wore to swirl with him, a feeble attempt at intimidation. "And it's your fault that he's like this! You hurt him!" The boy yelled, looking at him fiercely with his hands balled into fists. He threw a punch that showed off the training he had received, but as he swung, Zahrah leaped from her Poké Ball with a barrier ready, blocking the boy's attack with a curved wall of shimmering light.

When the boy's fist collided with the spherical barrier, he was sent flying to the left by his own momentum. He landed flat on his face, too surprised by the sudden appearance of a Gardevoir protecting her trainer from harm, to somersault and keep himself unharmed as well.

Kanta looked down at him and both he and Zahrah cringed as they heard his faint sobs. Their empathetic link that caused Zahrah to feel everything that the he felt may have saved Kanta a slightly broken lip, but it also caused Zahrah to feel the pang of guilt that Kanta felt as the boy cried on the ground.

"Kanta, should we help him?" Zahrah asked him telepathically. The look she gave him held no suggestion, simply the question to which he could only reply: "No, that would only serve to harm his ego further." He said aloud, his voice but a whisper to his Pokémon, not wanting to allow the boy to hear him.

The trainer yawned and turned to leave, turning back to Zahrah briefly as he neared the door. She stood over the boy, softly stroking his hair, trying to take the boy's pain away and make him feel safe, the boy's response however was simply an unfriendly scowl. "Come along Zahrah, there is nothing more that we can do." He said as he turned back to the door, Zahrah rushing to his side so that she would not be left behind.

He had defeated his 63rd opponent in a row, and he needed to rest if was to take Anabel down. Kanta and Zahrah made their way to a local hotel at which he had paid for a room through to the end of the month. She blushed lightly as they walked and she put her hand in his, causing Kanta to chuckle slightly.

His Gardevoir's link to him was incredibly strong, but her slightly romantic advances he knew to be a simple mimicry of what she had seen in the romantic movies that she had seen with his mother. She couldn't understand that there was a more powerful link to a person than she had with him, so she equated it to love, something that both vexed and intrigued Kanta.

_ Could a Pokémon fall in love with a human? It's not exactly something that I could ask Professor Rowan. Even Elm or Birch would think me crazy if I asked something like that. _He thought curiously before realizing that Zahrah could hear his thoughts.

"Of course a Pokémon can be in love with a human!" Zahrah mentally screamed at him. He cringed at the odd kind of sound that he felt rather than heard. She crossed her arms and looked at him angrily, her psychic energy coming off of her in waves. Her expression softened and the waves ceased when Kanta had to close his eyes from the headache that her unintentional Psyshock gave to him. It wasn't anything life threatening, but it was painful. She was immediately apologetic, and began healing him needlessly after a few seconds.

"I'm fine Zahrah, it's just a slight headache. And you didn't mean to, it's not your fault. I shouldn't have thought about that." He said, trying to get his rather fragile Pokémon to cease her worrying. "I'll be fine, I just need to get back to the hotel and rest." He explained shaking the cobwebs from his mind and smiling. Whether it was love as she believed, or just a strong psychic link as he did, Zahrah did care for him.

Kanta checked his Poketch, pressing the button three times to reach the analog clock. "Hm. 10:10, cool." He remarked, as he grabbed Zahrah's hand and continued walking. And he could feel Zahrah's happiness spike, not through the same psychic link that she had, but simply by the way the air felt. He just shook his head slightly and kept walking.

As they reached the hotel, it was obvious that Zahrah too, was a bit worn from the day's activities. It had been a long day for all of them. A long week really. Defeating 63 of the Hoenn League's greatest trainers was a tough job to take on for anyone, and most did the battles one or two at a time, Kanta had done seven every day using only Cadfael, Fiera, and Zahrah. Each battle had been harder than the last, but his Pokémon were all estimated at level 100, the highest level that each of his Pokémon could become. They were the strongest they could ever be, with each of their specific attributes raised to the highest level that they could reach. He allowed Cadfael and Fiera to join Tia, his Salamence, Claire, his Roselia and Sakhr, his Milotic under the tree that they had chosen to sleep under.

Briefly, Fiera shot Zahrah a glare that spoke a message that even the densest person could understand, but only a psychic like Zahrah could fully comprehend. Zahrah heard what Fiera was thinking, and couldn't help but take offense. "I'm watching you, and I can see you wherever you go."

"You may have been here longer, but I get to sleep in his room while you sleep under a tree." She replied angrily. Fiera turned up her nose at Zahrah's rather bold statement and went to rest on the grass.

Looking quizzically at both of his female Pokémon, Kanta walked to the room, Zahrah so tired that she needed to use him as crutch. He checked his watch again, 10:32. It was late. He unlocked the door and walked in, looking around to find a note from the manager on his nightstand.

As Zahrah walked over and slumped onto the bed, which she had claimed on the first night, Kanta read the note. It was just another notification of a battle request, a ten year old girl, fresh out of New Bark town had come by looking for a Pokémon master to test herself against, and someone that had defeated both the Sinnoh and Hoenn league Elite four, their Champions, and had claimed five of the Frontier Medals already, was the perfect choice. A great Pokémon "master."

He cringed at the term. Why was it that these children loved that title, loved having people call them that. Pokémon master, bah. He had never agreed with any of them. Master implies slave, and his Pokémon were his friends, they were equals in his eyes and he didn't want to be above them. He gripped the note and tossed it into the trash, a bit annoyed. He sat on the bed and sighed, exasperated.

Zahrah hugged him from behind briefly and as she embraced him, for just a moment, he too could feel all of the emotions that she felt as the red protrusion on her chest pressed against him. She lied back after that moment had passed, too tired to even sit up straight any longer. "Just lay down. Ignore it, all of us know that you would never call yourself our master." She spoke directly into his mind, her voice sounding as sweet as a bell.

Meanwhile, Fiera watched angrily through the walls of the hotel, utilizing her X-ray eyes, her tail swishing back and forth, jealousy stinging her heart. Her ability made her stronger against other girls, but it also made her quick to envy. "Dammit." She growled and grumbled.

"Hm." Cadfael moaned as he lifted his head. "What's wrong now?" He asked sleepily.

"She's doing it again!" She snarled, whirling on him.

"Doing what?" He asked as he rolled heavily.

"She's hugging him again!" She barked.

"So?"

"SO?"

"Shut up..." Sakhr interrupted with a cold hiss.

"What do you care?" Cadfael continued, ignoring his groggy friend's order, but continuing at a lower volume.

"I was his first Pokémon! She has no right to embrace him like that."

Cadfael rolled his eyes. "It's not like they're breeding."

Suddenly, Sakhr slithered in front of Fiera. "Would you please be quiet? We were all asleep before you all got back." He stated plainly. He was a large Pokémon, even for a Milotic, and his glare was intimidating to most, but Fiera was proud of her power, and she was not most Pokémon.

"Go away Sakhr!" Fiera growled. "I'll use Thunder Fang on you quicker than even Tia can move!"

"And as usual, I would simply take that attack and more." He declared.

"Guys. Guys." Claire interjected. "You don't need to hurt each other."

"Yeah. I mean, who cares if Kanta and Zahrah wanna get it on." Tia said with a heartfelt laugh.

"You are not helping Tia..." Claire said, puffing out her cheeks.

This time, Fiera and Sakhr spoke as one, the only thing that changed was the pronoun used. "S/he would never do that!" Both glared at the other.

"Everyone... Can we please go to sleep?" Cadfael asked, stepping between his best friend and the only other guy on the team. Kanta had a way with Pokémon, but he was nearly incapable of finding male Pokémon, something that bothered both Kanta and the Pokémon that he had dubbed his "lord of battle."

"Thank you." Sakhr said coolly as he coiled loosely around the tree.

"Bu-" Fiera began.

"Just go to sleep honey, it'll be fine." Tia cut her off and laid down on a patch of earth that she had clawed to make a softer spot.

"Stop calling me honey. I'm nothing close to a Combee's food."

"Shh.." Cadfael said as he pushed Fiera over playfully and laid down beside her. "It's not a big deal, she's always been close to him. It was a fated meeting."

"That's the problem." She said coldly. "She's wrong about how he feels, and she shouldn't be as close as she is to him... I've been with him longer..."

"Are you 'in love with him' too?" Cadfael asked, using a rather sarcastic tone to denote that he already knew the answer.

"Of course not," she replied. "it's just that she makes him uncomfortable, and acts like she's something more special to him than the rest of us. And she's wrong."

"Well then she's just wrong. No point in worrying about it." Cadfael said with a smirk. "Just sleep."

"Please!" Said Sakhr with a hiss.

** Back inside...**

As Kanta turned to her, she slipped under the bedclothes, covered her face, and pulled one of the large pillows under her head, embarrassed as she always was after those embraces due to her bashful nature. In turn, Kanta pulled one of the pillows off of the bed for himself to use. Zahrah had claimed the bed after all, so he slept on the floor.

"You're right, I know that you are." He said as he tossed the pillow to the most spacious area of carpet in the room made too small by some of his clothes that he had left strewn about. "I just... Forget it." He continued with a sigh as he took off the gray t-shirt of which he owned five, tossing it into, or at least, near the hamper before continuing into the restroom to brush both his teeth and his shoulder length locks.

Kanta yawned as he returned after a few minutes, and was about to lay down when he heard Zahrah, who had fallen asleep almost instantly, suddenly awake with a start. She looked at him with fear in her eyes and said only one thing: "Run."

Right then, everything changed.

Everything, went to hell.


	2. Chapter 2 Nightmare

**Chapter Two – Nightmare**

"Run!" Zahrah exclaimed again. She looked at him seriously, her eyes as warm as always, but now horror took the place of the kindness that usually filled them. The fear of her foresight showing plainly in her overly expressive eyes.

"How long do we have?" He asked quickly, grabbing his usual black shirt and vest to throw them back on again. With a Gardevoir's innate ability to see the future, it was easy to believe her, but untrained as she was in this skill, Zahrah never knew certain details. Time however, that was always something in which she was precise.

"Not long. Hurry." She said, her face slightly contorted by some hidden pain. Something was wrong, he knew it as well as she. His heart was pounding already as he grabbed his backpack and turned back to her.

"C'mon, let's go." He said as he kicked the pillow that he was going to use back onto the bed. He obviously wouldn't be sleeping for quite some time. He pushed his hair back quickly, slung his backpack onto his shoulders, and waited for her to come to his side.

Zahrah shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. She didn't tell him anything, but the message was there, and it was easy to understand, but it could never have been easy to take. He was going it alone, she couldn't follow as she always had. It had never happened before, and he really didn't want it to happen then, but when he opened his mouth to protest she grabbed her head and this time yelled through their psychic link: "Run! I'll be fine, and we will meet up after this is all over."

"I can't just leave you!"

"Just GO!" She screamed, her body and mind both straining to keep him away. He could feel her energy rise, creating a mirage-like shimmer around her before pulsating out in waves of her sheer, uninhibited power. It was a terrifying sight, her full power unleashed as though weights had been hurled off of her.

His eyes opened wider, and he too gripped his head. His pulse raced faster as he felt his brain seem to overflow with blood. He heard screams from outside, which only served to make the bombardment of Zahrah's psychic energy hurt more. She had never been able to cause him this much pain before. It wasn't as though she had tried, but during her fits of rage, she often sent out these waves of her power, but never like this. He knew that she was right, he had to run to stay alive.

The trainer's entire body screamed as he began to rise, his muscles straining and his mind feeling even more pressure as he tried to make it out of the room alive. He had become used to continuing his trudging through sandstorms, blizzards, and typhoons, and he assumed that he was only surviving at this point because of this low intensity training. He kept walking, and as soon as he felt a bit of a release from the psychic bombardment, he broke into a run at full speed.

His heart's pounding was only outmatched by the speed of his feet pounding against the floor. He ran past windows in the hallway, catching glimpses of what seemed like Armageddon beyond the thin glass barriers. Pokémon all over the island were attacking at random, and beyond that, their attacks seemed stronger than ever before.

He smelled burned flesh carried on the air as he ran, and it grew stronger as he neared the hallway that led to the elevator. He turned, sliding before completely changing direction, and at that moment, he was never happier that he had trained his own body alongside his Pokémon. He dove to the right to avoid a sudden Fire Blast from the maw of the Charizard that stood there, rolling and running straight toward the beast that rampaged as though it actually were the Dragon type that it looked like.

Dodging a Flamethrower this time, Kanta slid on the left side of the Charizard, narrowly escaping as the Charizard slammed it's tail down, only just missing Kanta's arm, the tip of it's tail lighting Kanta's shirt on fire as he somersaulted onto his feet, continuing his escape while he scraped his arm against the wall to choke out the small flame.

_ It's not just Zahrah, their attacks are all much more lethal._

As he ran for the elevator, Kanta threw a spare Ultraball at the button, and had things been less pressing, he would have been unable to keep from grinning at his successful hit, but as they were, he was only glad to have reached it just as the doors began to open.

Dashing in, he pressed the ground floor button, and rapidly slammed the close doors button when he saw the Charizard begin to turn.

He finally had a chance to catch his breath, feeling safer in the elevator, but he knowing all too well that the calm moment would be short lived. He was only on the fourth floor, and the elevator was going down quickly. His chest heaved as he tried to analyze what was going on.

_Alright, think. Pokémon are rampaging, and that Charizard actually burned my shirt. If it can burn cloth, it might be able to burn skin severely, and judging by the smell earlier, I'm probably right. _He thought as he tried willing the elevator to slow it's descent. _If everyone's Pokémon is going crazy, then the world just became a much more frightening place in which to dwell._

He shook his head. That train of thought wasn't getting him any closer to safety so he began anew. _Okay, there are hundreds of trainers on this island, and all of them are my class or better, so their Pokémon are just as powerful as mine or better... Not good. _This wasn't helping him to think, and the death cries of most of those trainers was clouding his mind as well.

Kanta started thinking in a dialouge, imagining how Zahrah, who often helped him to think of solutions to survival problems, would answer him, he even imagined her bell toned voice ringing out above the screams. _Where are there no trained Pokémon? _

_ The water? _Offered the mental image of his Pokémon.

_ Well, those would be untrained Pokémon, but there are way too many wild ones, and I doubt that they would be any less deadly than the trained ones._

_ Then what about Pokémon that are simply weak?_

_ Where would those be on THIS island? _He asked incredulously of his own mind.

_ Wild Pokémon would be the best choice._

_ The only Pokémon that can be caught here are Tentacreul, Gyarados, and other Water types that trainer's released, couldn't get along with, or lost._

_ Are you sure that there is nothing else? _His image of her asked worriedly.

_ Well there are Smeargle but they're usele-... _

Kanta smacked his forehead as the elevator reached the ground floor. Thinking like that had helped, but it had first made him feel very much like an idiot. He was looking for harmless Pokémon, not training partners or a good fight, and Smeargle fit that bill to a tee. They were friendly and only knew how to draw the portraits of other Pokémon using their moves.

The lobby of the hotel was also a Pokémon center, and that meant lots of trainers. And their Pokémon too. The smell came first. His first breath in this new room was filled with the scent of blood, melted corpses, and the stench of death itself. But most of all, he smelled the smoke of the building around him set ablaze.

Through the flames, he could make out bodies littering the ground. Some were charred, some melted my an nondescript acidic substance, and others had simply been sliced, stabbed, or otherwise mutilated. None were left alive. Even the Pokémon had either fled, or been killed by each other.

He ran straight for the door. A clear shot usually, but now a maze of dead bodies, holes made by acidic sludge, and walls of flame. The trainer looked around, scanning the floor quickly. He took note of clear areas and took a deep breath. He started running again at full speed.

His feet moved as if driven by only the shear force of will to live. As he ran, he was sickened by the scents that filled the air, nearly blinded by the smoke, bombarded by the intense heat, and deafened by the screams of all of the trainers that were still meeting whatever horrible fate Arceus had chosen for them to fall to.

After a few narrow escapes, some daring jumps, and a lot of coughing, Kanta finally reached the door. As he reached out to push the automatic doors, which were apparently taking the night off, open, he heard a creaking above him amidst all of the other sounds. He looked up just in time to have his entire body scream "MOVE," his legs complying with a nearly unnatural, adrenaline aided, speed.

He had just barely dodged death once more as a burning timber crashed in front of the door where he had stood just seconds before, sending sparks in every direction. Kanta looked frantically around the room for any way out. Any exit. Anything! He found nothing, and the smoke that choked his lungs, also made him desperate.

He did the only thing that he could think of. He grabbed an urn and hurled it into the glass that made up the majority of the wall, and as it shattered he ran through, shielding his eyes and rolling onto the ground to crush any potential flames.

He rolled onto his feet and continued to run. He couldn't stop yet. Not until he had reached safety. He would find his Pokémon after this was over, as soon as it stopped he would gather them all. But it was then that a thought struck him. _What if...? What if one of them died? _It nearly made him stop in his tracks. It was frightening, but he shook his head. _They won't. They're strong, they are going to survive just as I am!_ He thought as he began to run again. His new found resolve was suddenly interrupted however, when he tripped over something unseen in the flashing lights of the attacking Pokémon.

Kanta looked briefly to examine whatever the nondescript lump on the ground was, and found something he could never have expected. Anabel lay on the ground, gripping her head just as Zahrah had in the hotel room just moments before. She was in pain. But pain meant that she was alive. He scooped Anabel up quickly, making sure that she was securely placed onto his back before he continued to run.

He ran straight for his goal, the cliff directly across from the Pokémon center, and leaped, diving headfirst into the water, switching his grip of Anabel to one that a life gaurd would use to keep a drowned body with him as he swam, which was just what he had to do. It was the only way to reach the Artisan cave in which only Smeargles sought residence and keep Anabel safe as well.

The brunette swam with all of his might, hoping against hope that he would make it before he and Anabel were swallowed up by some Gyarados, or drawn under by the tentacles of a Tentacruel. He willed his body not to give out, not to cripple under the stress that it had undergone for the last four minutes.

He struggled against the waves, his lungs, his muscles, and Anabel's slight writhing. It was excruciatingly difficult with what had already happened tonight. Waves crashed against the two of them, nearly pulling them under more than once.

Kanta breathed a sigh of relief when his hand touched the rocky beach he had sought out. As he climbed out of the water, he could only continue to crawl toward the cave, dragging the now unconscious Anabel with him. He had never ran, swam, or had his heart beat so fast as he had in the last five minutes of his life. He collapsed in the cave, surrounded by Smeargle, all of which were too frightened by the noises and scents to move.

Finally, it was over. He slept flat on his back. Fatigued and worried for the lives of his friends, he didn't even dream. He just wished that this had all been just another nightmare.


	3. Chapter 3 Inferno

**I apologize for the jump in length from chapter 2 to 3. I had to put a lot into this one for it to make sense, and I explained a LOT in this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Three – Inferno**

**August 17th **

* * *

Kanta awoke after a night's rest. Though his worries and the rocks had made his rest a bit less than satisfactory, he had at least gotten enough sleep to walk again. He stood, testing his legs by hopping a few times. They stung from his overexertion of them the previous night, but he would be fine to climb back up to the main part of the island.

A curious Smeargle inched closer to he and Anabel, sniffing around and keeping it's paintbrush tail at the ready. He smiled and crouched down, his movement making the small Pokémon jump back with a slight yelp. Kanta stood completely still with his hand outstretched and waited.

After a few minutes the Smeargle had inched close enough to sniff at his hand, and after identifying his scent, it decided that he was trustworthy. It saw fit to lick Kanta's fingertips as a sign of obvious approval. He patted the Painter Pokémon's head absentmindedly while he looked over Anabel's sleeping form. The headache that she had succumbed to the previous night seemed to have subsided, and she now slept peacefully.

"Can you and your friends keep watch over her for a while little guy?" He asked of the diminutive Pokémon jokingly, but when it stood straight and used it's paintbrush tail to salute him, it was clear that this Smeargle had at least been around humans before. It had understood his request somehow, and it began marching in a circle around the sleeping frontier brain.

Kanta smiled, and walked out of the cave. Anabel would have been safe even if the Smeargle had simply walked off after Kanta began to speak. Smeargle were kind and docile Pokémon, and the most that they would do was paint her portrait on the walls of the Artisan Cave.

The newly awakened trainer squinted in the light of the new day, his eyes straining to adjust to the glare of the sun off of the water. "Heh. Pretty serene considering what happened last night." He said with a remorseful and slightly amused tone in his voice. To him, the rising sun was just that, a beginning, proof that life would keep going. It was proof that Arceus, was kind, and that he was blessed.

Kanta smiled again and looked up at the cliff face, his smile quickly receding as he took note of how long it would take him to get back up to the town above. _This is going to be a long day... _He shook his head and walked toward the side of the cliff, taking a better look at the path that he would have to take. _Hm. It looks to be pretty clear cut. I can climb it. _He declared inwardly. The boy reached up and grabbed the first rock and began to climb. _But it will take a while._

**One hour later...**

Kanta grabbed the top of the cliff, and thanked Arceus that he had actually made it. The climb hadn't been incredibly tough due to how much it sloped, but it had just taken so long. He pulled himself up and collapsed on the ground, looking up at the sky again.

He breathed heavily for a few moments, taking in the view of the clouds, and standing as soon as he had caught his breath. He looked around at the surrounding wasteland, desolated by a night of incredible power unleashed upon the island. The land had been Terra-formed, most of the buildings leveled, and the others, though left standing, it was only just barely. His entire world had been changed in a matter of hours, and if he wanted any sense of normalcy, he needed to find his Pokémon.

He took another deep breath and thought, with Zahrah's imagined responses flowing into his mind. _Where would you be?_

_ Where I'm safe of course. _The response came from within his own mind. It had obviously been created by his own mind, but as close as he was to his Gardevoir, she may as well have been right next to him.

_ Yeah, big help. Where would you be safe?_

_ Well, I was in the hotel when it burnt down, but you know I can't die that easily._

_ Yeah, so you're not there any more._

_ Maybe.  
_

_ Okay, fine, so you could be anywhere._

_ Yes. _Kanta sighed. Even in his own imagination, Zahrah was an exceedingly difficult girl to deal with. He composed himself, and once he had collected his thoughts, began again.

_Fine, I won't look for you first. How about Fiera? _

_ She's somewhere that she would feel at home, they all are._

_ Why didn't I think of that? _He was only glad that he hadn't spoken any of this aloud as he realized that he had, and that it wasn't actually Zahrah giving her input. The trainer feared for a moment that he may have become a bit unhinged, but shrugged it off when he realized that he had always done things like this.

"Feel at home... Alright. Fiera and Claire are field dwelling Pokémon... So they could be anywhere... Not helpful. Sakhr is a water dwelling Pokémon, so he could be swimming around, but with Zahrah not having located me before I could do anything, they're likely incapacitated somehow... So he's not swimming... Cadfael... He lived in a volcano, so... Hm. No mountains... The Pyramid! But it's gates are locked until I can present all of the other symbols... So I'm kinda screwed there... Tia likes high places, so the Battle Tower is the obvious choice, and if she isn't there, I can at least spot Cadfael..."

Kanta turned toward the goal that he had set for himself and marched. He was going to have to go all the way to the top, and chances were the elevators had been damaged, so the emergency stairwell would be his only choice.

**Minutes later...**

"Shit!" Kanta exclaimed as he forced the door open. He had to cover his nose as his senses were bombarded with the stench of hundreds more putrid bodies littering the ground. As they had been in the hotel, some were charred, some cut to ribbons, but most had been partially melted, leaving behind grotesque images of skeletal hands with bits of flesh falling away reaching for the help that had not come for them. To many trainers used the acidic beasts Nidoking and Nidoqueen.

Carefully, with his shirt puled over his nose, Kanta inched toward the stairs, taking care to step over the bodies of humans and Pokémon alike. The stench, the stagnate air, the overall atmosphere, it all accumulated to make it very apparent that Kanta's nightmare had just begun. The world had been changed forever, and he thought then: _I guess that I'll have to change with the times. I'll have to work even harder to keep my friends safe. _

The door to the stairwell hung halfway off of it's hinges, and had been violently bent, he could only guess that it had been done by the body of the five year old girl that lay only a few inches before it. Upon closer inspection, Kanta deduced that her bones had been shattered upon impact with the door. It stood to reason that a Fighting type was most likely the culprit.

Her body had been mangled, contorted, and bashed. He found it sadly ironic that her parents had chosen to dress her as a Sneasel for their challenges, a Pokémon that took four times the normal damage from any Fighting type attacks.

_Children don't belong in the arena. _He thought as he bent down to scoop up the child. _Her parents are the only ones to blame for her death... _Her body sagged dramatically, showing that her bones had indeed been crushed to meal from the impact. She slumped in his arms and felt roughly like a sandbag that had gotten wet. He turned around and went outside into the light, which he came to regret within seconds.

Her blank eyes looked as though they focused on him for a moment. He saw blood pour from her mouth where her teeth had been shattered, and her cheeks cut on her new and perfectly sharpened molars. Tears welled up in his eyes and his legs felt as weak as the young girl's entire body felt to him. He collapsed, hugging the body of the disfigured girl. Blood flowed from her mouth like a slow waterfall due to the increase in pressure, covering his chest in the sticky red liquid.

This had made everything more real. He wept, cradling the corpse of the small one that he had never had the pleasure of meeting. The pressure of his arms around her mangled chest caused more of her blood to pour from her mouth, her organs having been crushed, her bones stabbing through her heart, veins, and arteries. Her blood spewed from her mouth and covered his white shirt in a crimson dampness that would haunt him only as long as he wore the shirt. Her face however, would haunt him until the day that he died.

Kanta laid the young girl's body on the ground and started clawing at the earth. He had to bury at least one person on this island, and that girl deserved something close to proper. She would have no coffin, but at least she would be laid to rest. She had died far too soon, with fear in her eyes and in her heart.

He dug for thirty minutes before he was satisfied. His hands were stained with dirt, but he had managed to dig a few feet down. He stepped out of the small hole, and picked up the girl. He gently placed her in the ground, and closed her eyelids with a brush of his hand. She was small enough that his shirt covered her like a blanket. The hole was big enough, and she wouldn't be unearthed naturally.

"I'm sorry little Sneasel... Had I known you, I'm sure that you would have been kind. I'm sure that someone loved you dearly, and... I'm sure that you didn't deserve this." He said as tears flooded his eyes again. Tears hit the dirt as he pushed it over her mangled form. As her body was taken in by the cold embrace of the earth, Kanta stood once more.

He said a prayer that he had been taught as a child. He had previously discarded it, but, there was no time more fitting than now to beg for help from the heavenly resident of Ecruteak. "Oh Ho-Oh, great Pokémon who can resurrect all things with the power of your sacred ash, may you one day see fit to do so for this sweet child, taken before her time."

He broke off from this prayer to go into one of his own then, "Lord Ho-oh, I know that humans caused harm to your home before my time, but please... Take pity on her... Bring her back safely... Some day... After this world is cleansed... After... After this hell has become a far off memory of nightmares..." As he finished his solemn prayer, he clapped twice, as he had been taught as a child in Ecruteak.

Before more tears could even threaten to well up, he turned to the battle tower and hardened his gaze. A death like that would not befall him. He would not allow himself to fall to anything, not until he saw to it that his Pokémon were safe. As always, they were his friends, his first priority.

He ran back into the tower and up the stairs as fast as he could, hoping against hope that he could at least find Tia at the top of this tower. After he had climbed at least ten floors he stopped and realized something. The stairwell had remained mostly untouched. A few holes in the walls here and there, but nothing to the stairs themselves, he was only capable of punching the wall when he realized why.

_Most people died before they had time to reach the damned stairs. They were all battling when this all happened. _He thought as he shook the pain out of his knuckles, and this realization was followed only by an increasingly grim one. _There were probably very few survivors from last night, and most of them did not make it out of here._

Kanta continued to climb, enjoying the peace at first, but with each step he also became increasingly uneasy of the deathly silence. Each step he took upon the tempered steel of the stairs was met with a dull ring that echoed throughout the stairwell, and as he reached the 45th floor he had already become tired of the only sound other than his own breathing. He felt the grip that death himself seemed to hold over the building, and it was eerie that every few doors had a crimson pool flowing from it's clearance.

The rest of the climb was like torture, a hundred levels, millions of stairs, and the ever present feeling that he was in what would be a tomb for centuries. He began to think on the subject of death. Was it a terrible end, or a sweet release? Would the world return to normalcy now, or would Pokémon always be able to cause this kind of wanton destruction?

Shaking those thoughts from his mind when he reached the top floor, he grabbed the doorknob, and threw himself out of that ghastly, cavernous stairwell, and into the afternoon sun. He looked around, scanning the roof of the battle tower, and saw just what he had came there looking for, his favorite dragon-type, his Tiamat, resting peacefully on top of the tower. As he drew closer, she raised her head groggily. It looked as though he had just awoken from a long slumber. She nuzzled his outstretched hand, and as usual, she pushed him over gently. The Dragon licked his face, happy to see him. Then she simply laid her head on him to use him as a pillow.

"Hey Tia, It's time to get up, we need to get moving." He said plainly and kindly as he tried to gently wriggle out from under her head. With a truly annoyed look on her face, Tia raised her head and looked at the sky, her gaze softening as she saw the clouds. She had always found comfort in her dreams of flight. Even now that she could take to the skies, it still calmed her to she the clouds drifting peacefully across the sky.

Kanta stood and looked around as Tiamat rubbed sleep from her eyes, taking her usual care with her claws around her tear ducts. "At least I know that you're still you Tia." He said with a chuckle as he scanned the island for any signs of his other Pokémon, and saw for the first time, just how terrible this had been all over the island. Trees had been leveled by attacks like Silver Wind, and the earth scorched by Fire-type, or perhaps Electric-type attacks, and judging by the fact that the Battle Dome's cliff face had been decimated by what he could only assume was Earthquake unleashed at full power by the Dome Superstar's Swampert, the effects of last night had been much more destructive than simply a few buildings.

He turned away from the site of such destruction and continued to search for his Pokémon. Tucker's demise was unfortunate, but no more so than the deaths of the other people of this island. He had other matters to attend to.

With most of his Pokémon, he knew that they would be nearly undetectable from this height, but there was one that would have left an unmissable mark where he had settled, and with any luck, he would still be fine. Sure enough, Cadfael was plainly visible from where he was, and was resting calmly in the scorched earth before the Battle Pyramid's gates.

Those accursed gates had kept Kanta's strongest Pokémon away from the strongest of the Frontier Brains, Pyramid King Brandon, but there was a simple and easily recognizable reason for them if one knew the history of the Battle Frontier. The Battle Frontier had once been spread out over much of the Kanto region, with the location of each being kept hidden from all but those few challengers deemed worthy to face them by one of their traveling scouts, but as challengers became increasingly rare, the Frontier Brain's boredom had brought them to make the decision that they would move to an uninhabited island just off the coast of the Hoenn Region, with their challengers consisting of anyone who had claimed all eight Hoenn gym badges, and had challenged the Hoenn Elite Four at least once.

However, certain changes had had to be made to the basic structure of the challenge itself, namely, a way to ensure that the order of each challenge remained at least somewhat similar. Finding this mostly impossible, the Frontier brains had made concessions. They decided that the order of Brains challenged didn't matter as much as the difficulty of reaching them. If their fortresses were now accessible by a much greater number of people, then those people would need to fight their way to the Brains at the top of the ladder.

First, there was the Battle Factory, the place that had undergone some of the more eratic changes. Noland had decided that patience for fools was a waste, and refused to adhere to any increase in difficulty that did not weed out those that were not knowledgeable, and ready for anything that came their way, including not being allowed access to their own Pokémon.

In the Battle Factory, Trainers could simply walk in and take a simple test of their Pokémon knowledge, with questions from "What type is super effective against a Steel-type?" to questions like "What was the first man-made Pokémon?", Trainers had to get 90% or more correct to then be allowed to face the Factory Head. They would be given a choice of three, random Pokéballs, and use the Pokémon within to battle Noland's three Pokémon. He gave the trainer two choices then, to have him pick Pokémon in the same way that they had, or let them pick three from his menagerie of Pokémon.

When Kanta had challenged the Factory Head, he passed the test with flying colors, and was given a Pelliper, a Typhlosion, and a Feraligatr, and when given his choice, he asked to be allowed to choose from Noland's menagerie. He chose to battle against Noland's Machamp, Venusaur, and his Camerupt. He was able to make quick work of the Camerupt with his borrowed Feraligatr, the Machamp with Pelliper, and his Venusaur fell to the borrowed Typhlosion. He had claimed the Knowledge Symbol with the most ease.

Secondly, there was the Battle Arena. All that a trainer had to do was compete in a daily tournament that was held on every day save for Saturday, and reach Greta when you became the champion. In addition to normal battle rules though, due in part to Greta's seemingly miniscule patience, battles were judged, and were up to judge decisions weighing the Pokémon's mind, body, and overall skill, after a time limit of just three minutes.

This meant quite a bit of work, but Kanta had been up to the task, and had reached the top five his first day, and the number one slot on his second go around, and with Greta's all fighting team, Zarah's Psychic waves and were a brutal force against which they couldn't stand. The Guts Symbol was his, as was the friendship of the easily excitable martial artist. She had a tendency to Show up at his hotel room on Saturdays asking for matches between the two of them rather than their Pokémon, and had started training him in martial arts.

Third, there was Tucker in the Battle Dome, which he had also modeled after a tournament, but with the focus on style, theatrics, and tactics. Winning in this sixteen seeded tournament, that was held only on Wednesday nights and used only double battles, was based upon a trainer's skill, their focus on their Pokémon's individual statistics, and their Pokémon's flare. With only the winner being allowed to challenge Tucker for the Tactics symbol in a final battle on center stage, it was obvious that things could only get harder from there.

Kanta's challenge at the battle dome had went well, thanks to his practice in both the Hoenn and Sinnoh contests, and his completely focused training. With Sakhr, Fiera, Zahrah, and Claire at his side, he put on a performance that had the crowd cheering. But just as he had been warned by so many, it just got harder from then on.

With Pike Queen Lucy's focus on luck, her Battle Pike had been based on a thirteen victory, room choice challenge. A trainer had to go in with three set Pokémon, and choose one of three doors, each containing a trainer of a different type specialty. It was up to the trainer's luck to not run into any of her subordinates with specialties in a super effective type.

This was where Kanta's luck ironically changed. It had taken him three weeks to get it right, always choosing a door to a trainer with truly frightening Pokémon. Then, after so long, trying over and over, he finally faced with Lucy, the meanest girl that he had ever met. She was as vicious as her snakelike Pokémon, but her battle style was based around luck almost exclusively, using attacks like Swagger to confuse the opponent, and moves that Pokémon were lucky to withstand. The battle was hard, but Kanta came out on top with Zahrah's psychic abilities, Tiamat's speed, and Cadfael's power.

His latest win had been the toughest to get to, and it was against Palace Maven Spenser. The Pokémon sage who's wisdom was what made him a competent Frontier Brain. In this challenge, Pokémon were not allowed to be influenced by trainers. They chose their own attacks based on they felt they should act.

He was forced by this then, to enter Tiamat, Fiera, and Cadfael, as the three of them most enjoyed battling and with their personalities best suited to the battlefield, . It had taken them numerous tries, and with the Maven's health beginning to fail with age, he was only able to hold his challenges one day of the week at the most. He had chosen Saturday afternoons so as not to compete with Greta, so every Saturday for a month, Kanta had continued to go until he finally defeated the Maven.

Then there was Anabel in the Battle Tower. Her challenge was only the second hardest, but it was easily the one that made most trainers give in. A trainer had to use three of their Pokémon to defeat seven consecutive opponents, over and over until they had defeated 69 opponents, and then Anabel would serve as the 70th trainer in the ultimate test of a team's abilities. Even Kanta, who could now, after all these years, defeat the members of the Hoenn and Sinnoh Elite Four, was finding it difficult to get to the top of the tower.

Finally, there remained only the Battle Pyramid, and at it's top the Pyramid King, Brandon. His Pyramid was off limits to anyone who had not previously claimed every other Frontier Symbol, and the Pyramid itself was the most difficult challenge of the entire Frontier. The inside of it was kept completely dark, it was built like a maze, and wild Pokémon ran amok. One had to navigate the entire maze, make it through the seven layer pyramid, and face Brandon on the roof. Brandon himself, was rumored to be an even more difficult opponent than the Pokémon kept within the pyramid.

With five Frontier Brains beaten, and Anabel in his sights, his Pokémon were all anxious to face the ultimate challenge of the battle pyramid, but none so much as Cadfael. Cadfael, a name that means lord of battle had seemed fitting of the legendary Pokémon that he had battled for three full hours to capture, but only after having gotten to know him, seen how brightly he glowed only during a truly heated battle, did he understand just how much he was THE lord of battle. Seeing him outside of where he would face his ultimate challenge was only natural. But something about the air around him seemed somehow off.

"Tia, let's go, it's time to fly!" He called as he turned to face her, a grin hiding the anxious expression that had covered his face a moment before. Tia lifted her head, returned his grin, and with one large blast of air from her wings, she took to the skies, circling just above the tower.

Kanta watched as her blood red wings carried his dragon gracefully, and when the time was right, he ran off of the tower, jumping in a sky diving pose and giving a whistle to his winged friend. Sure enough, she dive bombed to reach his exact speed. When her descent and his were synchronized, he reached out and straddled her, holding onto her neck gently as she quickly flipped to change her direction from straight down, to level gliding. This routine had been practiced by the two of them, made to impress the judges at Pokémon contests. Draco Meteor was usually involved, but for this, there was no need for extra showboating.

"We've gotta get to the Battle Pyramid Tia, Cadfael is there." He said over the rushing winds. She nodded her agreement, and flew with only a small fraction of the speed that he had trained her with. It was not enough to knock him off, but it was enough to try. They reached the pyramid within minutes.

The heat was nearly unbearable and the ground had dried by an unnatural rise in temperature. Cadfael body had always been a much lower temperature, hot enough that his mouth was a furnace, but never had it been this intense. Now he stood feet away and Kanta could still feel the heat of his volcanic Pokémon, and he could see the look on Cadfael's face as he saw the distance that his trainer now had to keep. There was terror in his eyes where a calm determination had been just the day before.

Kanta felt heat blow off of his Heatran's body, flowing and bashing against him in waves. The air shimmered around him as his Pokémon's distress began to rise, taking his power higher. Kanta heard the stone wall next to Cadfael begin to crack from the heat, the wind picking up as the heat created an updraft, and the air that rushed in to replace it creating small whirlwinds as the cold and hot air made contact.

_Is this fate then? _Cadfael thought with a roar. _Is this my punishment for being created from the most destructive force on Earth? Is this what you chose for me Father? _He continued as his roars and cries were heard by all on the island. Cadfael looked to his trainer, to his friend, and to the person he could no longer be close to, and had his body been cooler, tears would have flown from his eyes as new thoughts filled his mind.. _I am not only barred from being near my human friend... I can never sleep next to his other Pokémon, my best friends, either. I shouldn't stay..._

"Cadfael, Return!" Kanta suddenly called out as the molten behemoth turned to walk away. He held out the only Ultra Ball on his belt, and activated it's return feature in a gamble. Before last night, Pokéballs were known to negate the abilities of the Pokémon inside, and luckily they still did. The air grew cooler almost instantly, and Kanta's mind was racing just as fast to try and figure out what the hell was going on.

_What happened last night? Cadfael could ALWAYS contain his heat, even when I first caught him... But that... That was like an inferno._


	4. Chapter 4 Wasteland

I apologize. It's long again, and I am sorry. I think that they're going to continue along this path.

* * *

**Chapter Four – Wasteland**

Kanta stood, still puzzled by the flames of his newly re-energized Pokémon. _Zahrah's psychic waves felt a lot harsher too... So, I can assume at this point that all Pokémon have undergone a change that makes them both more volatile, and more powerful. With this in mind... I need to proceed with caution, but... _He looked to the sun, already at it's peak. _I do need to proceed._

"Come on." The trainer turned said as he turned to his faithful dragon. "Let's fl-"

"HOLD IT!" A strong, feminine voice rang out from a bit away. "DON'T YOU MOVE AN INCH KID!" With that he whirled to see who was saying this, calling him kid. He turned to see an enraged Pike Queen glaring at and taking ridiculously fast strides toward him.

"What?" He called out as she neared him, annoyed with her attitude. Lucy and he didn't get along well, and he was as unhappy to see her as she was to see him.

She ran to him, closing what was left of the gap between them, and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Where's Anabel?" she asked angrily, a venomous glare still etched into her eyes. "I saw you kidnap her last night so where is she?"

Kanta was interrupted before his sentence even began. "KANTAAAAAAAA!" Yelled an overly excited Greta as she ran and kicked him out of Lucy's grasp. Her feet collided with with his now raised forearm as he blocked instinctively. The force was still enough to knock him over, but at least the blow hadn't connected with his face.

"How are ya?" Greta asked with a natural looking smile as she landed.

"Greta! This gutle-" Lucy began.

"Shh! I'm trying to talk to my friend!" Greta said with a scowl, cutting off the Pike Queen just as she started. "Have you been keeping up with your training?" She asked as she turned her head back to her pupil.

"Yeah..." He said as he stood up and brushed himself off. "Just not.. Today... Obviously..." He had become used to her kicks over the last few weeks of receiving them every Saturday, training under, and sparring with her. Every week since his victory over her, she had appeared at his door, at six AM, and had forced him to learn at least a basic amount of karate.

"Oish." Greta said as she took a stance. "I'll see how far you've come!"

"Greta. No." He said with a sigh. "I have to find four more Pokémon, I've only got Tia and Cadfael."

Greta looked at him, as shocked as Lucy was disgusted. After Kanta had given a shortened explanation of the events of the previous night there was a moment of silence from all three. Greta spoke first. "Well where are they?" Her words were laced with worry and her eyes filled with pity.

"I don't know, that's why I'm looking for them." He said plainly as Tia inspected the newly blackened wall.

"Then where could they be?"

"Well I'll tell you where the only good Pokémon you have is, if you let Anabel go and turn yourself in for kidnapping her!" Lucy said angrily. She had been ignored by two of the most annoying people that she knew, and she would not let it stand.

"Lucy, tell me where my Pokémon are or I swear to Ho-oh that I will-"

"I'll tell you when I see Anabel you sick pervert!" She screamed in response.

"What are yo-?"

"What, your Pokémon not giving it up any more so you decided to kidnap a little girl?!"

"Alright look you venomous bit-"

"Shut up!" Yelled Greta as she punched both of them in their chests. Both had been completely unguarded, and her punches had knocked both back a bit. Both coughed for a moment as Greta spoke. "You two are worse than children around each other! Lucy, Kanta would never kidnap Anabel, now tell him where his Pokémon are. It's your duty as a trainer!"

"No. I saw her carrying the poor girl during all that craziness."

"Yeah, I was, because she was passed out in the middle of a war zone. I brought her to the Smeargle's cave!" He said, glaring angrily at Lucy as he rubbed his chest lightly.

"Okay, that makes sense." Said Greta calmly.

"No it doe-" Lucy began.

"Shhh! He told us where she is, now all we need to do is get on Kanta's Salamence, and fly to the Artisan cave." Greta said happily as she climbed onto Tiamat and pet her neck happily.

"I don't want to be anywhere near this creep!"

"Fine. Kanta and I can just go, you can wait here. Come on Kanta!" Greta said with a certain cheerful seriousness to her voice that showed that she meant business, but was still somehow kind.

"Sure." He said as he climbed onto Tiamat. "Lucy, if you don't give me back my Pokémon, I'll have Cadfael set fire to your hair, and judging by last night, the heat won't stop there." He said, mimicking her own acidic glare and tone.

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

"Oish! Tia, let's fly away!" Greta yelled happily to both the sky and the Pokémon. She pointed upward in a show of dramatic flare as she spoke. Tia craned her neck to look at them as her response, and simply stared at Greta, willing her to simply fall off of her back for issuing an order to her.

"Tia, let's go to the Smeargle cave." Kanta asked through the palm that currently covered his face. Tia shook her head slightly as she looked forward before flapping her wings and taking flight.

Greta yelled happily and Kanta held Greta and himself to his dragon's back as she flew at nearly full speed. Within minutes, she had reached the Smeargle cave. Kanta couldn't shake the feeling that the morning would have gone a lot quicker had he not had to climb and walk as much as he had.

As soon as Tiamat landed, blowing pebbles into the sea and dust into the air, Kanta and Greta jumped from her back and walked into the Smeargle cave, where they found a groggy Anabel calmly petting three Smeargle in turn.

"ANABEL!" Greta yelled as she tackled Anabel to the ground. "I'm glad you're still alive." She continued over Anabel's squeak, nuzzling the younger girl wholeheartedly.

"How are you feeling?" Asked Kanta as the Smeargle that he asked to watch over her saluted him in his return. He returned the gesture politely before bending to pet the little artist.

"I'm fine... Who are you?" Anabel replied, while she tried to get the overexcited blond off of her. She gazed at Kanta quizzically, as though wondering where she might have seen the older boy.

"I'm Greta, silly." Greta replied before he could interject.

"I meant him..." Anabel responded sweetly as she pointed as politely as one could point.

"Oh."

"I'm Kanta ma'am. A challenger of the Battle Frontier." He said respectfully.

"He kidnapped you last night!" Greta proclaimed with a jubilant giggle.

Anabel looked at him, but not with the shock, fear, or anger that he might have expected. She looked at him with a certain knowing expression. "Thank you." She said as her wise expression became a kind smile.

Greta giggled again when she saw Kanta's face contort in confusion, looking back and forth between the two of them. "Anabel is an excellent judge of character," Greta explained matter-of-factually, "She can know just by looking at a human or a Pokémon how nice you are!"

"That is..."

"I know that it sounds a little odd Kanta, but I'm really not that extraordinary." Anabel explained humbly.

"I would say that it must be... useful at the very least."

"I suppose so." She said, seemingly embarrassed by his slight praise.

Kanta was pushed slightly to the side as Tia walked in. She gave a roar of utter impatience and boredom, glaring at them and tapping her foot in a laughable impression of the human show of impatience.

"Who thinks that I was kidnapped?" Anabel asked Tia.

Surprised with Anabel, Tia turned her head to look at Kanta, looking for confirmation, but finding only more confusion.

"It's alright Salamence, I have the ability to hear a Pokémon's thoughts, so I can tell that you're worried about your trainer and your friends." She said with a calm, clear, and lighthearted voice. "But who thinks that I was kidnapped?"

"Lucy, she saw Kanta pick you up, and you heard about that boy that totally creamed her once he made it past all the obstacles she made?" Tiamat responded, still a bit confused by someone other than Zahrah being able to read her thoughts.

"Of course, she huffed and puffed over it for days."

"Oish, that was Kanta! I'm so PROUD! I'll bet that's the only reason Lucy's saying that kind of stuff." Greta interrupted, remembering easily what Lucy's most recent tantrum had been over.

The realization of where Anabel had seen Kanta before hit her like a ton of bricks. He was the trainer that had been competing at the battle tower with the legendary Pokémon Heatran, a Gardevoir, and a Luxray every day from dawn to dusk. She smiled at her challenger, and silently sized him up. He was older than most trainers, it was obvious that he was now used to shaving at least once every few weeks, and he was tall. The surface wasn't enough. She delved into his mind slowly.

His heart was kind, loving to children and Pokémon alike. His mind was a little clouded by worry and fear, but past that, he was level headed and intelligent. It was obvious that he had recently been through something traumatic, but so had everyone else the night before.

"I have a Psychic Pokémon Anabel, I can kind of feel you in my head..." Kanta said, calmly alerting her to his keen sense of how it felt to have one's mind subtly invaded by others.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to see what kind of person you were." She said with an apologetic bow.

"Just ask things. I'll speak my mind." He explained coolly. He had grown used to Zahrah's intrusions into his mind, she almost couldn't help it, but to have someone else do that was a bit unnerving.

"Well... For what it might be worth... I found out only that you are a good person, you love your Pokémon, children, and that you are mostly pure of heart." She replied with a smile.

Tiamat let out a yawn-like roar that echoed throughout the cave in an incredibly exaggerated manner, and as the Smeargle ran around, terrified, Tia looked satisfied with her use of the space's amazing acoustics. Kanta looked at her and willed her to realize that she was being rude.

"Tia's right, we should leave." Said Greta as both she and Tiamat nodded in unison. Kanta couldn't help but chuckle. They were similar souls, so it wasn't odd for the two of them to do things like that, but it was still hilarious.

"This is true. I need to find my other Pokémon, and I'm sure that the both of you still need to do the same." Kanta said as he helped Anabel to her feet.

"Yeah... I hope that Espeon is alright." Anabel agreed.

"Oish! Com on Tia." Greta said as she hopped onto Tiamat's back and Tia began to follow her trainer.

"Alright... Tia, do you think you could carry all of us? I know that it's a lot to ask bu-" Kanta was cut off by his dragon pulling him onto her back with a look of determination toward the sky. She took off with lessened speed, but strengthened resolve.

The force of the air, the speed, and even the angle of Tia's ascension combined to nearly knock Anabel to the ground, but with two trainers as seasoned as Gretta and Kanta there, she was caught almost instantly. After mere minutes they had reached the top of the cliff and Tia landed, blowing the dust of the scorched earth into the air.

Kanta pulled his shirt over his nose to keep his lungs free of dust, while Greta seemed to revel in the challenge to her breathing, and Anabel simply coughed. They all got off of Tia's back, much to her liking. "Thanks Tia, return." He ordered as he held up Tia's Pokéball.

As soon as Tia had been transferred from the outside world into her Pokéball, Kanta grabbed Anabel's hand and started walking. He didn't say a word and kept his eyes fixed on his goal of that bitchy snake trainer.

"Wait up!" Greta yelled as she ran to catch up to Anabel and Kanta.

"Sorry Greta, but I've got to keep up the pace." Kanta responded, "Lucy has one of my Pokémon, and judging by what she said, and her own team, it's Sakhr."

"Kanta, I think that we can slow down a little..." Anabel said plaintively.

"I still have three other Pokémon to find Anabel, and I'm not sure of how much time is left."

"What's your plan then?" Asked Greta as she grabbed Kanta's other hand to slow him slightly.

"I'm letting Tia rest for now, and then I'll get a Pidgey's eye view of the island. Wait... No. That won't help, got one from battle tower... Never mind."

"What about after you have them all back?" Asked Anabel.

"I'm willing to wager that the events of last night were not localized, so I'm going home." He replied as he tried to quicken his pace, but was pulled into a forceful hug of submission by Greta.

"Is that really safe?" Asked Anabel, worry furrowing her brow.

"Judging by Cadfael's increased heat, I would say that the latent abilities of my other Pokémon are increased as well. Tia is faster than usual, and I'm guessing that Zahrah will be even better with her psychic abilities. More than that though, I'm willing to bet my life on Sakhr's- My Milotic's ability to calm even raging Gyarados when he's in the water."

"But how can you be sure?" Asked both of the girls in unison.

"I can't, but that's my chance at life, and I have to make sure that my family is alright. And Marceline too." He said with his greatest resolve.

"But-" Anabel began.

"Can I come with you?" Greta asked, cutting Anabel off.

"Greta?!" Anabel said in shock. "We're trying to convince him not to go!"

"But why? It makes sense, and it sounds fun, and it's not like we can live our old lives again."

"But it would be too dangerous..." Anabel said, obviously worried for her friend.

"It would be more dangerous to stay here with the limited resources of the island. Do you think that people will still be accepting your money as payment for riding over that much water from Slateport to here? Just to give food to the 80 odd people who are stuck here?" Kanta interjected. "I've only got one choice, and I'm going for it, you can either go with me or stay here, it's your choice."

"I'll go with you, there's nothing left for Hariyama, Medicham, Heracross, and I here." Greta said sadly as she glanced in the direction of her decimated dojo.

"I... I don't know..." Anabel said, unsure of anything at this point. "Anyway... Our first priority as Frontier Brains should be the trainers that are our challengers. We have to get them safely to the mainland."

"I guess that you're right there." Greta replied, always dutiful toward those she had sworn to protect.

"And I'll help you two to show my thanks for helping me get my Pokémon." Kanta offered.

"Thank you." Anabel said.

"Now come on, I need to get Sakhr back from Lucy."

And with that, they continued to walk, each lost in their own thoughts of the world as it now was, the future that lay before them, and the choices that they would have to make. They walked in silence. They walked along a broken road, littered with the bodies of humans and Pokémon alike. They saw trainers search frantically for their Pokémon. They saw Pokémon scared and alone. The world was different from how it had always been for them, and settling down. Retirement. A family. Those things were all far off dreams already, and they had only been around for a day after that Armageddon.

After a thirty minutes of walking, they reached the Battle Pike, walked around the back and neared Lucy's home. Anabel moved to knock, but Kanta was already too annoyed with Lucy to wait for an invitation. He kicked the door in and walked forward, pulling Anabel behind him gently, a move that would have been much more difficult had the door been locked.

"What the he-"

"Give me back my Pokémon Lucy. I have a very short fuse at this moment, and an even shorter amount of time, so I'd like to spend as little time as possible wasting my breath and sharing my air with the likes of you!" He yelled over her numerous attempts to interrupt him.

"Why should I? You still kidnapped her!"

"No he didn't Lucy... He saved me from the attacks last night." Interjected Anabel.

"But you were unconscious, and he was carrying you off!" she retorted.

"Exactly, he found me on the ground and carried me to safety."

"Fine... He's still a pervert though!" She said as she walked to a door at the back of her cottage.

As she opened it, they all saw into what had obviously been a garden before last night. Lucy's snake-like Pokémon slithered about, her collection of squinty eyed Pokémon either played or slept, and the Pokémon that she held captive, Kanta's Milotic, Sakhr, rushed to the door to see his trainer and the Pokémon that he thought of as his sister.

After he looked around frantically, Sakhr glared at Kanta. "Where is she?" He thought, his question translated by Anabel, though with a greatly reduced sense of urgency and with a bit more confusion.

"Thanks Anabel." He said, missing Zahrah's translating abilities considerably less now. "I don't know Sakhr, but you know that I won't leave this Island if even one of you is left behind."

"He says that you two need to get your asses in gear and find his sister." Anabel replied for the mute Pokémon. "Wait, you have two Milotic?"

"Yeah, I know. It will be sunset in a few hours, and we both know how much she hates being alone in the dark. I just hope that she might know where Fiera and Claire are." Kanta replied, ignoring Anabel's question for the time being.

"I bid you all farewell." Anabel spoke for Sakhr one last time as he bowed to Anabel and Greta, and brushed Lucy's cheek with his feather-like tail fin as thanks.

"Sakhr, return." He said as he held up the Pokéball in which Sakhr resided. As his energy form returned to the ball, Kanta turned and exited. He was quickly followed by all three of the Frontier Brains, Greta dragging Lucy along, and following behind Anabel with a cheerful grin that nearly reached her ears.

The sun was starting to set, and the light that it cast through the bloodstained windows of the Battle Tower most of the island crimson. As they continued to walk, a Thunder crashed into the earth in the distance, followed closely by the roar that Kanta knew could only come from his proud lioness. He ran toward the Thunder that they had just witnessed, followed closely by Greta, the both of them leaving Lucy and Anabel in the dust.

"Do you think that it was Fiera?" Greta asked as their feet pounded the Earth under them, each footfall bringing with it a cloud of dust.

"I'll bet you the usual ice cream bowl that it is!" He proclaimed.

"Dang sure aren't ya?"

"Oish!" He replied, mimicking her usual positive response as they both skidded to a halt before Kanta's gleam eyes Pokémon. The ionized air still seemed to glow as small charges danced from tree to tree, from grass blade to grass blade, and from hair to hair.

Fiera stood, proud of her new found power, reveling in her Thunder's residual energy, and grinning at her trainer who stood mere feet away. Their eyes locked and they both smiled at each other, not needing words or thoughts to convey this message, but he still felt the need to speak.

"Sup?" He asked with his usual, toothy grin.

She shook the electricity from her fur and walked up to Kanta, rubbing gently against his outstretched hand. _What took you so long Kanta? _She thought, returning his smile.

"We've gotta get going Fiera." He said as he scratched behind her ears. "Zahrah and Claire are still missing, and we have to help the Frontier brains get the other trainers that survived last night to safety in the morning."

She growled her displeasure, but nonetheless, she looked around, her eyes glowing red as she activated one of her latent abilities. She saw through every piece of plant life, rubble, and other obstructions to search for her team mates. _I see you... _She thought as she found Zahrah, sleeping soundly in a patch of grass.

"That lazy little girl is sleeping next to what used to be the Pokémart." Said Anabel, giving voice to Fiera's thoughts as she and Lucy caught up.

"Fiera... That's uncalled for." Kanta said with a scornful look. He knew that Fiera's personality and ability both made her very uneasy around other females, but she seamed to have a special kind of rivalry with Zahrah.

Fiera returned his gaze with a glare that displayed the scorn that he had shown seven fold and stalked away toward the Pokémart. She grumbled as she walked, looking to the left and right so that she could make sure that nothing was sneaking around. The rest of the group followed.

_He always thinks that she's so important. Little bitch. I hate her. She sleeps next to him when we camp, she refuses to stay in her ball, and worst of all that little tramp kisses him. He'll never kiss her back and she knows it. She just won't stop! _Fiera thought, fuming and grumbling all the while.

"I'm sure that it isn't all that bad..." Anabel said, running closer so that she could speak low enough that only Fiera could hear her.

_You're like her! You and she can both invade my mind. Well, I don't like it, so stop! _She thought, trying her hardest to scream inside of her head.

Anabel winced. "I thought that you might like to have someone to talk to. I apologize." Anabel said with calm sadness.

_Good._

They walked in silence for the rest of the trip. Fiera led the way, Anabel and Lucy were protected in the middle as Lucy returned Anabel's Pokémon to her, with Greta and Kanta bringing up the rear. They had all fallen into a place naturally, Lucy simply wanted to be next to the youngest frontier brain, Kanta and Greta were already friends, and Fiera was the one who knew where they were going. And after minutes of stifling silence, they reached the decimated Pokémart and the sleeping Gardevoir who lay outside.

Kanta hummed, intrigued that Zahrah would still be sleeping so soundly, even after the entire day had passed and a large moon filled the sky with it's light. "Come on Zahrah, return." He said, only half paying attention as Zahrah too reentered her Pokéball. Five down, and one to go.

"Kanta may-"

"Sh. I need to think about something." Kanta said, cutting Anabel off quickly.

_Alright, Tia woke up seemingly first, then Cadfael, Sakhr was somewhere in between the two of them most likely. Then Fiera. No idea where Claire is, and Zahrah's still asleep. Why would she still be asleep though? Tia and Cadfael were awake hours ago... Hm.. Wait. Tia and Cadfael were awake hours ago, the battle lord and the dragon! They like unleashing their power, they must not have become as worn out, while Fiera, Sakhr, Claire, and Zahrah keep their power under wraps! But wait... Fierra is proud of her power, she loves letting loose, so she must have woken up sometime earlier... She was probably just using her dark-type attacks or hunting... But, since Sakhr, Zahrah, and Claire have presumably slept the longest, and they are in fact my most self controlled Pokémon, it must be tied to the amount of power that they normally exude in their every day lives in comparison to last night._ Kanta thought, quickly analyzing the events of the last few hours, all the while being able to feel somebody in the back of his mind, listening in. He made it a point to finish off his thoughts with one about

"Alright. I'm done, and I think that I figured something out..." Kanta said, turning to face the others. They all seemed a bit bored, and Lucy had started walking away, but judging by the guilty look on Anabel's face, his suspicions had been correct. "I guess that you already know that though."

"I- I... err.." She said, looking away, embarrassed and guilty.

"It's fine this time Anabel, it saves my needing to explain. I still have another Pokémon to find anyway." Said Kanta reassuringly.

"Awww... What a sweet moment their having!" Greta said as she stroked Fiera's mane. "Is this a relationship you approve of Fiera?" She asked with a laugh. Fiera purred, a low, contented rumbling sound that represented her obvious answer.

"You suck Greta." Kanta began, causing Greta to pout, Anabel to look slightly enraged and embarrassed, and Fiera to perk herself up proudly. "You too Fi." He said, shooting her back down with a chuckle.

"So... Why is Zahrah still asleep though Kanta?" Anabel asked, switching the subject from what she considered uncomfortable. "They are considered kinda... Weak... Aren't they?"

"Well, I think that it may have something to do with the reports of Gardevoir being able to expend their energy to create black holes in an attempt to save their trainers. If Zahrah's kind are capable of something onthat scale, the power that she normally shows must be merely a fraction of her true abilities." Kanta explained as Fiera and Greta walked closer.

"Then why isn't Cadfael asleep? Heatran are known to create new volcanoes."

"But only when they're first born in their first burst of power. And besides, Cadfael shows off all of his power any time he battles outside. I've seen him create _tornadoes_ of flame!" Kanta retorted.

"I see... Then how long do you think that Zahrah will be asleep?" Anabel asked with a bit of worry.

"It could be a few more hours, she might not wake until morning. Either way, we need to get going. You should probably get some sleep, and I still have to find Claire." Kanta said.

"Oh please, I slept all day Kanta, I'll help you lo-" Anabel was cut off by Fiera knocking her head against Anabel's hand and pressing into her hip.

_Pay attention! _Fiera thought. _Claire's dead._

"What? What do you mean she's dead?"

"Who's de-" Kanta was cut off by Anabel's hand flying to cover his lips.

"Claire died last night when we all went crazy." Anabel said, translating Fiera's thoughts into words once again. "She was lying next to Cadfael, and when we all started firing off our powers at random, Cadfael's Heat Wave hit her and the hotel. The rest of us were fast enough to get out of the way, but Claire just... Just couldn't."

"Was anything left of her?" Kanta asked. On the verge of tears as he was, he found it difficult to force out the words. It was as though a lump of his tongue had lodged itself in his throat. His voice warbled horribly as he asked his next question. "There can't be nothing, can there?"

"Sakhr iced the area, so he might have stopped the fire from getting a small piece of her." Anabel replied. The young empath too seemed to be about to cry.

"Then I'll go try and find something of her." He said, turning around. "Fiera, return!" He held her Pokéball out, and had all of his living Pokémon back. He went to bury one of his original team members. A Pokémon that had helped he and Fiera defeat Cynthia, the Sinnoh league champion. One of his friends.

"Kanta, I know that you're hurt... Please... Don't go alone?" Anabel pleaded.

"This is something that I have to do Anabel."

"Well I'm going, so you might as well let her." Greta said firmly. "We're both your friends now, and friends don't let each other hurt all alone!"

Kanta had known Greta for all of three months, but he had learned quickly that she wasn't the kind of girl to back down from anything. "Fine. Come on then." He continue walking now with Greta and Anabel in tow.

The girls walked on either side of him. Anabel was usually silent, but Greta kept trying to start conversations, none of which were taken up for very long by either of her companions.

30 minutes later, they reached their destination, a hotel that had been burnt and destroyed by Pokémon attacks, the first of which was likely the Heat Wave from Cadfael. Kanta walked forward. Toward the tree that they had all slept under, still standing, but now devoid of leaves. It was a dark, shadowy husk, and beneath it was a small sphere of ice that surrounded a rose, the tips of which had been charred.

Anabel and Greta had the good sense to stay back as he dug a small hole for the rose. He thought that maybe, just maybe, the soil would eventually use Claire's petals to create a rose bush. It was a foolish thought, and he knew that it was. Seeds created new plants after all, and the rose itself held none. _But, _he thought calmly, _it's all I can do for her. And hell, roses look best in a wasteland... Right?_


	5. Chapter 5 Lost

**Finally got a short chapter again... This was so much easier to edit that the last few. The next one is already going on a bit long, so wish me luck. **

**Thank you for your continuing readership. **

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**Chapter Five – Lost**

Kanta wiped his eyes. He wouldn't show his teammates his tears. He regulated his breathing by sucking up air, maxing out his lung capacity and holding it in for a moment. He let out his breath all at once as he stood again. He turned around to face Greta and Anabel, hardening his gaze to take up his normal visage.

"Kanta... Are you alright?" Greta asked.

"Sure, let's just go. We need to figure things out." The trainer replied with a false smile.

"You're not fine Kanta. You need to grieve." Interjected the youngest of their group.

"It won't do any good Anabel. Claire is gone, I'm grieving, I'm coming to terms, but Claire cared about others, she wouldn't want me to let everyone on the island just stay and die, so I'm going to help you as promised."

"But... But your Pokémon just died! You need to rest, or cry, or... Something..." Said Anabel plaintively. She looked at him like she knew exactly how he felt inside, and the worst part was, he knew that she did. Tears welled at the corners of her eyes. She stared at him with a challenge in her eyes.

"If he says he's fine, he's fine for now. Kanta's a big boy, he likes to bottle things." Greta interjected, trying to cut the tension in the air with a few words.

"Bu-"

"No buts." Kanta cut her off. "Anyway... What do you want to do to get the civilians off the island?" He asked, changing the subject to something that he could be comfortable with.

"... We'll use the ferry..." She said, obviously not wanting to let the previous conversation slip, she opened her mouth again.

"That's probably for the best. We need a way to announce it, and get everyone onto it though."He said quickly, not giving her time to change the subject back.

"I suppose so, but there's nothing that we can do tonight..." she said with a sigh.

"Yeah there is." Greta chimed in happily. "We can go see Brandon."

"Greta, it's getting late, we shouldn't bother him." Anabel objected, being incredibly considerate.

"He's the head of the battle frontier, these people are his responsibility too. We should go, right Kanta?" Greta continued, turning to look at her male friend.

"Hm..." He checked his watch. "It's only nine pm... It should be fine." He concluded as he began walking away.

"OISH! I win!" Greta yelled happily as she jumped to follow him.

_The two of them must be really good friends... _Anabel thought as she started walking too. _I wonder how long they've known each other... I guess that I'll ask while we're on the ferry tomorrow._

After an hour long trek back toward the artificial mountain, they finally reached the gate to the pyramid in which the king had chosen to reside. The air was fresh with anticipation as Kanta stepped closer to the gate, made black by the heat of Cadfael's body. He had only ever dreamed of actually passing through the gates, challenging the Frontier Brain beyond, and taking the king's crown for himself. He had expected better circumstances.

There were six circular indentations inside of a stone circle that came out of the gate, each with their own symbol etched out to show each of the frontier symbols needed to enter the domain of the Pyramid King. Kanta had claimed five of the six prior to the events of the previous night, and all of them rested calmly in his badge case inside of his backpack.

"Er... Kanta... You're shaking." Anabel alerted him sheepishly.

"Hm. Oh. Yeah. I guess that I'm... Excited." He replied, putting his backpack on the ground. He opened the smallest pouch and took out one of four small, identical, red, metallic cases that held the ribbons, badges, and most importantly, symbols that he had collected on his travels.

"Wow, Kanta, I had no idea that you were so... Accomplished!" Anabel exclaimed in amazement. She looked at the cases in wonder, thinking briefly about asking Kanta the questions that plagued her, such as where he was from, how does he know Greta so well, and most of all, she wanted to ask: _How did he become such an impressive trainer?_

"It's nothing too special really." He said as he switched the case that he had grabbed for the correct one. "I've been a trainer for six... Still wrong..." He switched cases again. "Yeah. Er.. Six years after all. YES!" He yelled as he took the first symbol from the case and excitedly placed it into the correct keyhole. His hands shook more with each symbol as they filled the etchings on the door. All were soon filled, save for one. "Now, if you would be so kind." Kanta said as he rose.

"Oh. Of course." Anabel said as she rushed to grasp her necklace, the perfect, platinum copy of her Ability Symbol, the one Frontier Symbol that Kanta had been unable to claim prior to the apocalypse. As it clicked in to place, the gate's locks clicked open, the door itself swinging open slowly, the creaks resonating in a climactic fashion. It was obvious that Tucker was the designer here.

Kanta stepped forward, sending his hand toward the lock that had now allowed his Frontier symbols, along with Anabel's necklace, to fall into the collection plate below. He looked at them in his hand for a minute and just laughed at the fallacy of it. The world had practically ended, and he was the idiot who had stood before a goal that now seemed centuries old, so far away that it was meaningless, and had been shaking with anticipation. The anticipation of a battle he could never fight.

"Here." Kanta said as he tossed the necklace back to Anabel. She caught it quickly, but didn't fail to notice the waves of emotion rolling off of Kanta's mind.

"Kanta, are you sure that you're fine?" She asked, concerned as ever.

"He is," Greta answered, "but I don't know about Brandon..." The Karate master held a hand pointed firmly at the Battle Pyramid, or rather, at the hole that had been blasted through it's eastward wall.

"H...How?!" Anabel asked of the world at large.

"I don't know..." Greta replied, acting as the world.

"Sh...Should we... Continue?" Anabel had to strain to force the words past her lips.

"Oish!" Kanta and Greta replied in unison, their levels of shock matching as perfectly as their word. They shared a brief glance of acknowledgment.

"We have to see if he's alright." Greta said, taking great strides forward and grabbing the hands of both her companions on the way.

Kanta began to feel himself shaking again as they walked. The world seemed to shudder as they drew closer and closer to the pyramid, but something was off. He wasn't excited any more, wasn't nervous, or even starstruck, but still, the world was vibrating more and more as they advanced. Suddenly the Battle Pyramid's corners seemed to be cut away, they were pushed outward, and as the fans that were revealed began to spin, the Battle Pyramid rose. The entire structure simply ascended into the sky, leaving the island behind. It left behind no trail, and no trace of it's existence. The shaking was the pyramid's launch system, The king of the Battle Frontier was gone, and he had left it's people to rot.

They stood in shock, silence, and amazement for a few moments. Greta was the first to speak, if only to break the silence. "Soooooo..."

"Well, screw him, I'll be the Pyramid King from now on!" Kanta said, fuming at Brandon's having abandoned the civilians on the island, as well as his fellow Frontier Brains.

"Wait, that's up for grabs now?" Greta asked happily. "I'll battle yo- wait, you already beat me at that... I'll FIGHT you for it!" she proclaimed, fire in her eyes.

"Err... You know what... You can have it."

"Oish! I'm on a straight winning streak tonight!" She said before raising her arms to take a victory lap around Kanta. She stopped suddenly. "But... Both of those victories... They..." She looked to Kanta , feigning a realization. "They were given to me by.. You..." She turned away slightly, covering her cheeks in an over the top way. "I had no idea that you were so interested in my happiness Kanta."

"Oh ha ha." He replied with a scowl.

"Just so you know for when we get more serious, I want three." she chided.

"Three..? Three what?"

"Children of course!" She proclaimed with a hearty laugh.

"Why are we friends...?" He could only hang his head, exasperated as he was.

Greta continued to laugh, spewing out more jokes about the crush that she believed him to hold for her. "Should I bother wearing white, or would you have me before then?"

"GRETA!" Anabel yelled in shock.

She ignored her and pressed on with her teasing. "And I don't like sharing, so no more letting Zahrah sleep in the bed." She nearly fell over laughing, but after a few minutes, managed to stop.

"Are you done?" Kanta asked, not bothering with getting angry.

"Yeah. I think so." Greta managed to say through her wheezing.

Kanta sighed in relief and turned to more serious matters. He walked toward the platform upon which the Battle Pyramid had once rested, followed closely by a still chuckling martial artist and a slightly dejected empath. The cement block was perfectly smooth, save for one blemish in the far right corner. It was intriguing really. Why would someone take such great care to make the platform level, even, and smooth, but allow for that gaping hole. It didn't seem right. The trainer quickened his pace to reach the hole faster. He had to see what was up.

As the three of them drew closer to the only mark upon the platform, they realized that it wasn't left there, it was fresh, and as they came closer still, it became obvious that this hole led miles into the earth, had been made within hours of the present time, and was most likely the work of a Pokémon. What Pokémon though, was what Kanta did not know. "Anabel, what Pokémon does Brandon have on his team?"

"A Regice, Registeel, and a Regirock... Do you think one of them made it?" She asked instinctively.

"Yeah... Probably the Regirock... It would make the most sense... But why?" He wondered aloud.

"Maybe it wanted to go back home!" Exclaimed the blond fighter as she made her way over to her companions.

"Home?" Anabel asked in unison with Kanta.

"Yeah, to Sinnoh." She replied, "Brandon got his three Regi's from places in the Sinnoh league, so maybe they had some reason to go home."

"But there's only evidence of one having left." Retorted Kanta, taking the roll of the devil's advocate.

"There was the hole that we could see in the side of his pyramid, so I guess that could have been them, but that's a bigger clue." Greta replied, pointing out to sea.

In the dim light of the moon, there shone a single, shining trail. The water had ceased it's movement completely, and there lay a track of ice, created by a single attack from the Ice Pokémon who would never melt. Regice too, had left for Sinnoh.

"I suppose that I concede." Kanta said with a soft smile. "So I guess that Brandon and I have similar destinations in mind..."

"You're going to Sinnoh?" Anabel asked.

"That's where he's from." Greta informed her.

"Yeah, my mom might be in danger... Hell, my entire region might be vaporized." He admitted grimly.

"Could we go with you?" Anabel asked, much to Greta's delight. "It would be better to travel in a large group, even with our individual teams, it would be dangerous traveling alone." She continued, giving an explanation for her question.

"Er.. Sure, I guess. I haven't had any company in a while, so please treat me well." He replied with a small bow. "I'll be leaving as soon as we see the ferry safely off of the island."

"You won't be going on the ferry?" Greta asked, a bit confused by the choice.

"No, it doesn't really make any sense." He replied simply, explaining further as her expression remained unchanged and the psychic's began to mimic the fighter's. "Hoenn is that way," He pointed west, "and Sinnoh is that way," he pointed to the east, "If I were to go to Hoenn, I would be going a day's ride out of my way, only to add two days to my total trip."

"Oh." They said in unison.

"But I guess the ferry, and leaving, will have to wait until dawn..."

"Oish! At first light we become heroes!" Gretta proclaimed, excited by the prospect of being seen as the savior of so many.

"Yeah... I just need to find some place to sleep." Kanta said with a laugh.

"I thought you were staying at the hotel." The fighter asked, concerned for her friend.

"Cadfael kinda... Um... Burned it down." He hesitantly explained, rubbing the back of his neck and looking to the sky.

"I'd say that you could stay with me, but I don't really have a roof right now..." Greta said. "I guess that we're in the same boat."

"And judging by the looks of the tower, my loft is a bit... Well..." The purple haired girl looked to what she used to see as her home. "Decimated."

"Well, looks like we're all camping out tonight." Kanta declared as he slung his large backpack off of his shoulders and lowered it to the ground. "Here's a good a place as any I suppose."

"Neither of us really have any camping equipment Kanta." Anabel said, trying her hardest not to sound petulant.

"That's fine, I carry a very large blanket." He said happily as he pulled the neatly folded blanket from it's pouch, thanking himself once more that he had payed extra to get a truly waterproofed backpack.

"Why do you need one so large?" Asked the young psychic as the trainer flapped the blanket upward to unfurl it.

"Zahrah and Fiera, they like to use it as well." He explained as he pulled out a few inflatable pillows. He began to inflate them, a pillow taken by each of the girls. Setting up took a few more minutes, but afterward, they were all quite content to finally be able to sit for some rest, a feeling that only grew when Kanta brought out some of the protein bars that he carried. It was a meager meal, but one that was enjoyed.

After they had eaten, they enjoyed a night's rest under a blanket of wool, watched over by the canopy of stars overhead. Sleep came easily, and Kanta's dreams were sweet. He dreamed of his simple, childish life before this had all happened. He dreamed of when Fiera was small, and he dreamed of when Zahrah had first hatched. He dreamed of Claire's hatred of the mud, and of making Sakhr's favorite poffins.

He dreamed of the little things that had made life with his Pokémon a paradise. And he knew when he woke up, those days would be lost to him once again.


	6. Chapter 6 3:15

**In celebration of Black 2/White 2 I give you an extra chapter this month. This is also my way of telling you guys that I won't be Updating during November so that I can focus on my play through of the game, get a bit more schoolwork done, and plan out a quick one shot of my Elite Four Challenge in Nuzlocke mode which will be made after I finish the game of course.**

**Hope you like it, please review whether you do or don't, and I'll be sure to answer any questions or concerns.**

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**Chapter Six – 3:15**

**August 18****th**

As the sun rose in the new morning sky, so did the three our intrepid heroes. After some yawning, stretching, and a slightly edited versions of their usual morning routines, they began their walk to Lucy's residence.

Flying type Pokémon that had yet to be reclaimed, for reasons of fear or death, chirped in the trees, happily flitting about from branch to branch. The sun shone brightly, causing reflections on the dew of the grass, and after thirty minutes of walking, the sound of Greta's voice also rang out. "Can we let our Pokémon out?" The fighter asked innocently.

"I don't know Greta... That might not be safe... Especially with what I hea-..." Anabel cut herself short, causing Greta and Kanta to stop in their tracks. They turned to her with a wary look in their eyes.

"Heard? What did you hear?" Kanta asked, both concerned and suspicious.

"Er.. N-nothing. I just... Misspoke." She explained, obviously unaccustomed to lying.

"Bad girl, no lying!" Greta scolded, no doubt wishing she had a rolled up newspaper. "Tell us what's wrong."

"If you want to come with me, honesty's kind of a must."

"Fine." She said. "Before I passed out, I heard... Something... " She continued hesitantly. "It was a voice that said: I've given you the power to take back our world from the humans…kill any who stand against you." She finally admitted, mimicking the voice as best she could.

"Hm. I suppose that this was somehow intentional... I just can't fathom anything being able to do it, let alone wanting to commit this horror..." Kanta thought aloud, shocked and saddened by the fact that he could no longer pass this off to his mind as a series of unfortunate accidents.

"It sounds... Arceus-like." Remarked the fighter.

"No... It wasn't calm enough... It sounded like it hated humans, and there was hurt in the voice mixed with the malice." Explained their medium.

"Hm... Perhaps Giratina then..." The teen breathed sadly. "I can't see any of my Pokémon hurting me though, so... as long as I don't let Cadfael out, we should be fine. I trust them." He concluded as he reached for his belt.

"You're right, Hariyama and I have been together forever, he wouldn't hurt me." Greta proclaimed as she too put her hand to her hip.

"And if Eevee hadn't loved me, she couldn't have become an Espeon." Agreed Anabel, letting her hand fly to her Poké ball as well.

They all let out their Pokémon, all at once, only Cadfael remaining in his ball out of necessity. There was an enormous flash of light accompanied by the effects of Kanta's sinnoh region seals. The light that flashed from their hands soon materialized into the forms of their friends, the ones who had been beside them for years. Tia roared a yawn, Espeon shook her entire body, and Hariyama let loose a few practice punches to test his muscles. Fiera and Sakhr both stretched out their muscles, Medicham cracked her knuckles, and Alakazam examined his spoons, and even bent them a few times. Metagross let out it's metallic greeting, Greta's Heracross looked around for trees, and Zahrah stayed true to her classification, embracing her trainer with a soft smile on her face.

"I... Trust you too Kanta. We all do." She pressed the thoughts gently into his mind with all of the emotion that she hid behind the words.

"I'm glad to hear, or rather, think it." He replied with a laugh.

"Tia wants to return to her ball though, she says that she's still tired." She explained, translating her friend's groggy roars and groans.

"Alright Tia, I got it, return." He lifted the Poké ball up and she complied cheerfully.

Sakhr and Fiera glared at Kanta and Zahrah respectively, still locked in an embrace. Anabel looked at them in slight confusion and embarrassment, Greta simply spoke the onomatopoeia: "Aww."

"Zahrah, you can let go now." Kanta said, a bit embarrassed himself with everyone's gaze locked on he and his Pokémon. She reluctantly obeyed his wishes, finally taking the time to look around.

"Kanta? Who is this?" She asked, innocently pointing to Anabel.

"I'm Anabel." The mind reader replied.

Zahrah was intrigued. "You can hear what I tell Kanta?"

"Of course she can." Interjected the Alakazam.

"Someone with no psychic abilities training Psychic-type Pokémon exclusively would be highly illogical." Agreed the Metagross.

"It's nice to meet you Gardevoir!" Said Espeon excitedly as she gazed in amazement. "Why do you touch your trainer like that? Doesn't that red thingy hurt him?"

"L- Like what?" She asked, her cheeks flushing as she feigned innocence, her bashful nature shining through.

"Embracing their trainer is natural for Gardevoir. Their species claims a large rate of synchronization with their trainers. It is often equated to love." The Metagross explained to his childish friend.

"Guys, guys, please, quiet down?" Anabel requested of her Pokémon. They complied quickly. "It's nice to meet you.. Er..."

"Zahrah."

"Alright, we can talk and move at the same time. Let's get a move on. Sakhr, you're going to need your energy for later, and I can tell that you're a bit fussy right now Fiera, so, return." He ordered softly as he raised their Poké balls as well, their bodies transforming into red light that shot toward his outstretched hands.

"Can I go back to sleep too?" Asked Espeon, pressing her left paw against her trainer's leg.

"Sure sweetie." She returned her Espeon to her ball calmly. "Would either of you like to return as well?"

"It is quite tiring to need psychic energy simply to stand..." Alakazam admitted before being returned as well.

"It would be best for you to have at least one of us to protect you at all times Anabel." He replied with a stern caring to his voice.

"I don't believe that it could be dangerous on the island, but if you like, you can stay out." She replied cheerfully.

Hariyama, Greta, Heracross, and Medicham all stood in a circle through all of this, playing a very one sided game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, with only one of the players able to make anything other than scissors.

"What are you guys doing?" Kanta asked.

"We're trying to decide who goes back into the balls!" Greta yelled, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But they can't possibly beat you!"

"Are you calling my Pokémon stupid?" She asked, offended.

"No, I'm saying that they don't have the ability to make paper, and you're using Rockslide!" Kanta said, exasperated by his friend's oversight.

"Oh yeah." She replied. "We need something else... Einie meanie miney moe, catch a Snorlax by the toe, if he yawns, don't let him go, my momma said to catch a really fat one, and you are not it!" She recited, pointing to each of her Pokémon in turn with each word, finally pointing to Hariyama as she yelled 'It', signifying that he would remain. Anabel and Kanta both hit their hands against their foreheads as Greta returned her Heracross and her Medicham.

"Alright, let's keep moving." Kanta said with a sigh.

"Oish!" Greta yelled as they began to walk again.

It took half an hour to reach the snake's den that Lucy called home. Their time had been spent planning the finer details of the evacuation of the island such as how to alert the survivors easily, and, more importantly, supplying themselves for their own journey.

They had come to the conclusion that the best way to do this would be Kanta and Greta, flying on Tiamat, would use the megaphone that Greta used during tournaments for announcements, would yell to all below where the ferry was, when it would be leaving, and the current time. Then, after they had alerted the island's refugees, Kanta and Greta would then meet up with Anabel, and possibly Lucy at the warf. They would take any salvageable supplies in the way of medicine, food, and basic survival gear from the stocks of the , before returning to the ferry to see it safely off and beginning their own journey to Sinnoh.

"So that's it then. Home is moving again." Anabel lamented as Kanta stepped up to Lucy's door, and as knocked, she continued. "I wonder if life can ever be normal again..." She looked wholly disheartened.

"Wait a minute!" came Lucy's forceful order from inside.

"Probably not, but we just have to find our new normal." Greta replied, putting her arm around the young psychic's shoulders. "We'll be okay little sister, we just have to keep moving forward, and never give in to pain." She continued with the idea of their unorthodox family, but she spoke as a true warrior all the while.

Lucy opened the door. "Oh. It's just you." She said with a sneer. "What do _you_ want?"

"To offer you a ride off of this island."

"Why would I want your help?" The imitation lamia asked, disgusted by the prospect of being in close proximity to Kanta.

"Well, we need to follow Brandon, and Kanta's going to Sinnoh too, so it just makes sense." Greta interjected, placing as much condescension into her voice as she could possibly muster.

"Brandon is in Sinnoh? Why would he leave us? And all of those people?!" Anger seethed from her tongue like venom from the fangs of an Arbok. She received a warning glare from both Metagross and Hariyama, the latter of who even took a stance to show his dislike of her tone.

"His Regi Trio ran away, so he had to follow, and anyway, we already have a way to get the civilians off of the island." Explained Anabel calmly.

"Yeah, we're gonna get them on the ferry back to Hoenn, and then we're going to go to Sinnoh." Greta continued, excited by the prospect of seeing a new region.

"He still shouldn't have left us here to deal with the fallout." Lucy hissed, causing Zahrah to shrink behind her trainer.

"Well he did, and your complaining isn't getting us anywhere." Kanta replied, rolling his eyes at his own clichéd statement. "Just help us out in our plan, and come with us, you probably won't even be doing that much work."

"Fine." She submitted with an icy glare in Kanta's direction. She hated to lose, but even she had to admit that the others were right. "What do we do?"

It took a few minutes to explain everything, and a few more to use Kanta's map of the world to plot out their exact course. They would leave, heading north-east, island hop through the Sevii Islands to the berry forest to restock on food, and from there it would be a straight shot to the Iron Island where they would stay one night before going to Jubilife City, Kanta's hometown, where they hoped to find some help. After a night's rest in Jubilife City, they would either split, the Frontier Brains going to Snowpoint to meet with Brandon and Kanta continuing to Hearthome, or they would stay together, going one of the two ways.

"I guess that's everything then." The Psychic proclaimed, rising along with Kanta.

"Yeah." He replied as he popped a crick from his neck, earning a scowl from Zahrah.

"Oish! Let's go!" The Fighter yelled, raising her arm as if in victory.

"The sooner we get off this island the better." Sighed the venomous queen as she gathered a few of her things into the duffel bag that she had used when she was still a wandering trainer.

"I'll be outside." The wanderer proclaimed as both he and Zahrah stepped out into the sun.

As soon as he and Zahrah had left the building, and the door had swung shut behind them, Greta spoke up. "Alright, so what is your major malfunction Lucy?"

"What are you talking about?" She asked, implying that the next words should be 'idiot.'

"You haven't stopped being mean to Kanta since yesterday. I mean, I know that you're a bitch, but you just won't lay off!"

"Greta, I don't think that we shoul-" Anabel began, trying to stop the argument before it escalated.

"I don't feel that I owe you an explanation Greta." Lucy hissed, cutting off the youngest of their group.

"You don't owe me anything, but I don't really like how you're treating my friend!" She replied angrily. "If he did something to you, then speak up, if not, then shut up!"

"I just don't like him. He rubs me the wrong way." Replied Lucy, glaring defiantly at the fighter.

"Fine then, either be nicer and work with us, or try going it alone." She said, putting a certain tone to denote the finality of her words and walking out the door for emphasis.

After a few moments Lucy went back to packing. "Can you believe her?" She asked of Anabel angrily. "I mean, come on, the guy lets his Gardevoir hang all over him! He acts like it's his girlfriend. Always protecting her, and hell, he was the most excited when we went to get her. And, when I said that I had his best Pokémon, he instantly thought I meant that I had her."

"He's not that bad..."

"He's a creep."

"No he's not. You know as well as I do that Gardevoir are the embrace Pokémon. She likes hugging him. Besides, Psychic Pokémon are usually the best on a person's team, so that's normal too." She explained, inflating her own ego slightly with her talk of her chosen type of Pokémon in general.

"Oh please."

"Just finish packing." Anabel said as she walked toward the door. "He's not a bad guy. I can tell."

"Maybe you're wrong."

"Sure." She scoffed as she walked out. She was greeted by an impromptu match between Greta and Kanta that was already well under way.

Greta's fists flew quickly, striking out in what seemed to be random ways, but with each hit connecting with a piece of Kanta's body, it was obvious that she was being methodical. Kanta blocked a few of her blows, but with an increasing level of difficulty as the fight went on, and with next to no offensive strikes of his own. Anabel's mind could only equate their difference in power to a fighting type and a normal type, but still, Kanta was holding his own.

After an exceedingly long barrage of fists from Greta, with Kanta having blocked all but three, he finally saw fit to return the blows. His arm flew in a power packed right hook, a move he regretted instantly. Dealing with the situation seamlessly, Greta moved to the right, turning her body so that Kanta's arm was parallel to her chest. Their eyes locked as Greta's fist stopped just before Kanta's windpipe, her other hand stopping his progression so as to save him the injury to his neck.

"I still can't compare to you." Kanta sighed, his breathing heavy, his brow dripping with sweat.

"That's to be expected. I've been training at this since I was a little girl and I've only been training you for ." She said comfortingly as she relaxed her stance. "You're coming along quickly, you should be proud." She added with a smile.

"Wow..." Anabel finally spoke. "You two were both so amazing."

"Thanks, but I'm nothing special... Greta's the master here." Kanta admitted.

"Still buttering me up, huh?" She asked in response.

"Just stating plain facts Greta. I'm a trainer, but I've seen you go toe to toe with your Medicham and win."

Greta smiled at the boy who had become her friend as he continued to compliment the abilities that she exuded and he lacked. Anabel looked at the two and no longer wondered how they had been such fast friends, while Lucy, who had just exited her abode simply scoffed a the man who she saw as trying to entice Greta's feminine side.

"Are the three of you ready?" Lucy asked, her holier than thou tone seeming to insinuate that she had been made to wait. The response to this sentence came differently from the three others present, with an "Oish!" from Greta, a simple "Yeah." from Kanta, and a kind "Of course." from Anabel.

"Since the three of you each have a Pokémon out, I believe that I should keep one out myself." Said Lucy, more as a thought than a true piece of speech. "Go, Seviper." She ordered as she let her Pokéball open, allowing her serpentine Pokémon to escape in a flash of light.

Lucy's Seviper coiled herself at Lucy's feet, baring it's fangs angrily at the Gardevoir that had already defeated it, and hissing at the Pokémon trainer who had defeated her master. "Easy girl." Lucy hissed in return.

"Kanta, I don't think that battles should happen anymore..." Zahrah warned as she gripped onto his arm. Her eyes were filled with worry, but it faded as Kanta flashed a smile.

"I know. I won't let anyone hurt you or any of our friends." He assured her nonchalantly, making, and failing at, an attempt to pull his arm away. Zahrah looked at him with an expression that showed that she was sad, frightened, and begging him to let her continue holding to his arm.

"Did you hear something? Before all that happened last night?" He asked, pearing into her eyes, looking for any hints of hidden thoughts. He had to know for certain that she wasn't trying to spare his feelings or keep him safe from the truth as she usually did.

"Er... I... No..." She mentally stammered, looking away from her trainer's gaze. She had never been adept at hiding the truth, and Kanta was the hardest person to lie to. As his stare hardened, her resolve faded completely. "Yes. I heard something. It told me that it had given Pokémon the power to take back the world and that... " She stopped short with tears in her eyes.

"It's alright Zahrah. I know that you wouldn't do anything to me." He replied with a soft smile. "You can do whatever you like to Lucy though." He continued in a whisper.

"Alright, we should get a move on if we're to make it off the island by nightfall." Anabel said as she hopped onto her floating Metagross. "We've all got our jobs down right?" She asked of the group at large, the general response being "Yes" with an "Oish" from Greta. "Good. Let's go." She said happily as she and Lucy went out on their mission.

"Did you snag her megaphone or do we need to go get yours?" Kanta asked Greta with a laugh as he reached for Tia's Poké ball.

"Don't worry, I got it." She replied as she returned her Hariyama to it's ball. "What should I yell again?"

"Just where the ferry will be and that it will be leaving for the Hoenn Region at three o'clock." He spoke in turn as he let out the red beam of light, watching as it took the form of Greta's steadfast friend. She let out a proud roar before flapping her wings and destroying the sparkling flames that her seals around her.

"Tia's your coolest Pokémon Kanta." The fighter proclaimed excitedly as she ran toward the Dragon-type of Kanta's team.

Tia greeted Kanta, Zahrah, and Greta with happy eyes that soon transferred to the skies above, awaiting the command of her favorite attack. Greta smiled back and hopped on to the dragon's back closely followed by Kanta who in turn helped Zahrah onto Tia's back.

"Alright Tia, I need you to fly over the island few times." The trainer began calmly. "Take it easy though, it's pretty hard to keep hold of you at full speed." He continued as a plea.

"NO WAY!" Greta yelled. "Go as fast as you can Tia!"

Tia chuckled evilly. Her eyes gleamed for a moment as she took notice of the air currents. Zahrah gripped onto Kanta a bit tighter as he did the same to Tia. She raised her wings, extending them fully before letting them drop as she jumped. She forced herself into the air with all of her might, and as her upward momentum slowed, she began gliding slowly toward the center of the island.

The overly excited fighter sat in brooding silence as Tia continued to fly around. She was plainly disappointed in their current speed, but Kanta decided to ignore it for a while so that he could talk to Zahrah. There was time for that.

_Zahrah, do you think my mother is alive?_ He thought, knowing full well that she could hear what Greta couldn't. He had been wanting to speak to Zahrah since she had awoken about this very subject, but he refused to show off such insecure thoughts before Anabel, Greta, and Lucy, especially when Anabel could read his mind as well.

_What? _She asked sheepishly in response. She looked at him with worry filled eyes as he felt all of the emotion he had been keeping locked up, a swell of swirling torment that nearly crushed her. Tears began to well up in her eyes but were quickly wiped away when her trainer cringed at the thought of her crying, and of Greta learning of what they spoke.

They were both silent in both mind and body for a moment as Zahrah sifted through everything that Kanta was feeling. His heart and mind were both weighed down by the death of one of his first six Pokémon, the image of a girl's mangled body that he had buried, and the possible death of his mother.

He had placed himself somehow as a leader of the group, or at least the one who made the majority of their plan. This wore on his mind as well, unused as he was to shouldering the burden of the lives of his companions. He wondered how they could trust him so easily, how they could presume that someone that only one of them had met previously could be worthy of this position that he had silently been granted.

More than anything else though, Kanta was afraid. Afraid of losing his friends. Afraid of losing his family. It made his spine shiver to think of what would happen if he failed his companions. The thought of losing his own life shook him to the core. Throughout his entire body, these fears danced happily, cutting his insides and starting fires in his veins that made his blood feel like ice by comparison.

Suddenly Zahrah couldn't contain herself any more. She leaped toward Kanta and tackled him onto Tia's back, tears streaming down her face. The weeping Pokémon buried her face into his chest and continued to let herself shed the tears that her trainer refused to allow himself to cry. Greta looked on with a mix of worry and confusion painted across her face, a look that was returned with only a shrug from Kanta.

Greta shook her head before she raised the miniature megaphone to her lips, the setting as high as it's dial would allow, and yelled the order that she had been given to spread. "Attention all trainers and civilians: Please make your way to the docks in the southern port of the island in an orderly fashion! I repeat: Please make your way to the docks in the southern port of the island in an orderly fashion! The ferry will be leaving for the mainland of the Hoenn Region at three o' clock! I repeat: The ferry will be leaving for the mainland of the Hoenn Region at three o' clock!" She let the order ring out, adopting the voice

Zahrah still lay with fer face buried in her trainer's chest, but her uncontrollable weeping had slowed to quiet sobs thanks to Kanta's comforting. He smiled softly because of whatever conversation they were having. It made the fighter's heart feel warmer seeing the two together, and she couldn't help but say "Awww..." when she saw Kanta kiss the top of his Pokémon's head. Kanta and Zahrah both blushed when they felt Greta's eyes upon them and they detached themselves from each other guiltily.

"No~. Don't stop, you two make such a cute couple!" she proclaimed, beaming at the two of them and their beet red faces. It was a statement that made Kanta nervous, and Zahrah even more embarrassed than before.

_Do we? _The psychic asked of her trainer.

"What? No!" He yelled in return, waving his hands in an overly exaggerated manner. He turned to his friend and glared, speaking: "Greta don't give her any ideas."

_But..._

"But you are!" Greta said defensively and resolutely. "It's so... Forbidden, and sweet, and... ADORABLE~!" She continued with a coo.

"No it isn't! You're brain dead!" Kanta responded, his voice cracking slightly from the situation.

"I am not! My brain's alive, I just don't use it much!"

"Greta, what's 2 plus 5?"

"Those are completely different numbers."

"Yes, and I would like you to add them together."

After a minute or two of Greta sitting with furrowed brow, she simply did what came naturally. The fighter let her fist fly into his right shoulder.

"OW!"

"You lack training!" Greta yelled over her friend's voice. From the sidelines Zahrah and Tia both laughed as Kanta and Greta continued their little squabble. More useless flails at the other, more words insulting Greta's intelligence and Kanta's weaknesses. But after a few minutes, the two of them had begun laughing at themselves and each other.

They circled the island, repeating their message, twice more before they descended. They landed at the docks, where Anabel, Lucy, and a few civilians were already stocking the ship with what little supplies had been salvaged from the supermarket's warehouse.

The ship itself was obviously seaworthy. It was kept in a kind of garage built into the wall of the island during the night, so it had been left untouched by the tragedy of previous nights. Kanta smiled softly as he, Greta, and Zahrah approached. Their plans had come together rather well.

"Hey there guys." Anabel greeted them. "We're almost ready to get this boat on the water." She continued happily, her voice raised over the sound of civilians boarding the ferry.

"What's the headcount?" Kanta asked, having to yell to be heard as well.

"Around 75."

"With more are on their way." He added happily. "We saw about 15, maybe 20 of them on our way in." He continued, receiving a kind smile from Anabel as a response.

After that short exchange, Anabel, Greta, and Kanta went to work in different areas. Greta and her megaphone ordered people to shuffle into the correct places, Anabel continued her inventory, and Kanta, with the help of Zahrah and Greta's Hariyama, began loading the ship anew. Everything went smoothly. The ship was loaded with cargo and people on time, the water was calm, and the sky was clear.

The ship set sail at exactly three o'clock. It had sunk by 3:15.

From the cliff face above, Kanta, Lucy, Greta, Anabel and Zahrah watched as the ferry sped for the horizon. They watched as they seemed to slow, and suddenly came to a halt. They watched as over sized tentacles rose from the depths and began to coil around the ship. But none of them could keep from turning away or shielding their eyes as the vessel that they knew held 94 lives, was dragged into the water. They had seen enough.


	7. Chapter 7 Interview

**Special Thanks to JanTanner for alerting me to the fact that my word processor's lines don't matter to Fanfiction and for his constructive criticisms.  
**

**Edit: Special Thanks to Nightelf37 for pointing out that I am a failure in all things. TT_TT Thank you Nightelf37.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Interview**

The waves continued their natural movement. Just as suddenly as the ship's destroyer had appeared to take it, they had disappeared even faster. Only a few stray ripples and a red and black circle of the ocean remained to mark it's presence. The four trainers stood and watched in a shocked silence as all of this went on.

"This was our fault... wasn't it?" Anabel asked with tear filled eyes as her legs buckled beneath her. In the silence that followed she found the only answer that her compatriots knew. They all felt the burden of the lives lost. The air was heavy with tension, the ghostly faces of those who had been lost haunting their already cluttered minds.

Greta was the first to move as she tugged on Kanta's sleeve to get his attention. "We should get going." the fighter said somberly once their eyes had met. Her words seemed to hang in the air due to the absence of all other sound.

Anabel stood as Kanta nodded his agreement. There was nothing left on this cursed rock. It had been forsaken by Arceus and Ho-oh alike. No life would ever thrive here again. It was a tomb now, nothing more.

They turned away from the now clear water, the blood having been dispersed by the crashing waves.

With a Milotic on either side of a small dingy, the trio of Frontier Brains, with Kanta and Zahrah at the helm, had set sail. The sky was blue, and without clouds. The seas shimmered as the aura of the Milotic in the water calmed all creatures within it. Even the Tentacruel, that had moments earlier torn another ship asunder, simply parted as they sailed on. They even looked happy somehow.

Kanta had an idea. "Sakhr, Milotic, slow to a stop please." He requested calmly, affected by the aura of his own Pokémon and Lucy's.

"Don't order my Pokémon..." decreed the snake woman, her hatred of Kanta's victory over her intense enough to withstand the Milotic aura, though to a lesser degree than Kanta had anticipated. Despite Lucy's orders however, both Sakhr and Lucy's Milotic halted before a small Tentacruel.

The Tentacruel drifted closer, flicking his tentacles absentmindedly to propel himself. He stopped before crashing into the boat and calmly greeted the two Milotic by extending a tentacle toward each of them. As they bowed so did his tentacles, a mutual respect obviously being shared between the Water-types.

"Zahrah, would you mind translating for me? I have some questions for the Tentacruel." Kanta asked, his voice completely drained of the fear and anger toward the Tentacruel that he knew he would have felt outside of the aura of the Milotic.

Zahrah nodded her agreement, and instantly the trainer began to speak, despite the looks of shock he received from both Greta and Lucy. "Why did your brethren attack the ship earlier?"

"Because it was commanded of us. The great one spoke, and we obeyed." The Tentacruel responded through Zahrah. He clicked his beak a few times to stop Kanta from speaking prematurely as he sensed he was to be interrupted. "We wonder why you are not considered a threat by us."

"It is because we mean no harm. Our Milotic convey this to you through their aura." he responded simply. It was now his turn to stop his conversational partner from interrupting. "Why do you use 'we'?" He asked of the tentacled beast.

"Because we are merely parts of the great one, even he is merely an avatar of the greater purpose." The Tentacruel responded as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Continuing the rhythm of their conversation, the Tentacruel asked the next question. "We wish to know why you are here."

"We are trying to make our way to the Sinnoh region." He replied as he pointed toward the region he spoke of. "My turn. What happened two nights ago? Why are Pokémon like this now?"

"Ho-oh." The jellyfish Pokémon replied.

Kanta was shocked. If what this Tentacruel said was true, the Pokémon that Kanta had been taught to revere as a god had caused the deaths of all those innocents. He had made Cadfael unable to stand in the presence of his trainer or his friends. He had ripped the world they had all known to shreds. And, "for what reason?" Kanta asked, his anger breaking through the Milotics' aura.

"Ho-oh is tired of the human race's pollution of this planet. He has decreed that they are to die." He explained coolly.

Kanta fell to his knees, causing Zahrah and Greta both to kneel beside him, each placing a hand on his back. For a moment, everything was silent. Neither Greta or Zahrah spoke as Kanta began to rise again. Nobody breathed a word as he looked to the sky. "If a god turns to evil and becomes my enemy, I will take up arms against even a sea of misfortune to defeat him." He cried out, finally breaking the cold silence. "If a god becomes a demon," He turned to his companions, and hardened his eyes into a glare, "then we will commit deicide."

"We are allowed one more question yes?" The Tentacruel asked for his brethren and himself. After Kanta nodded, the creature asked his final question. "We wish to know if you hate Pokémon now."

"No." Kanta replied. "I could never hate Pokémon. My Pokémon are my friends, my family, and the only Pokémon I can't befriend are the ones that I've not met yet."

"Is there anything else?" He asked cordially.

"Yes, I would like to know one thing more." Began the trainer. "I would like it if you could tell me what side your kind are on. Are you with Ho-oh or against him?"

"We have decided upon neutrality. The Tentacruel wish for peace. We wish for a place to call our own, without the interference of humans or Ho-oh."

"I guess that is enough then. I bid you farewell."

"And I you good human." He replied as they both bowed to each other as they had previously.

As Sakhr and Milotic continued to swim, Kanta continued to think on the subjects that they had gone over. Ho-oh, his god, had been the one to try burning the world to cinders. Nothing made sense any more.

"Do you think that we can trust the Tentacruel?" Anabel asked.

"We don't have to. They're neutral, they don't really care." He replied coldly. "They won't bother us as long as Sakhr and Milotic are swimming."

* * *

Three hours passed in silence, each member of their party lost in their own thoughts. The only sounds were those of the Wingul that flew lazily overhead, the splash of the waves beneath their vessel, and the occasional cry of a breaching Wailord. They were still an hour or two away from their first stop at Treasure Beach, and nothing was happening. Even Zahrah had become bored enough to have returned to her Poké ball after just an hour. Only Kanta remained awake as far as he knew.

"Hey, Kanta?" Anabel suddenly asked, alerting her new friend to her continued presence among the living.

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell me about yourself?" Asked the empath as she slid next to him. There was no malice in her words, nothing to cause alarm for the trainer.

"What do you mean exactly?" He asked in turn.

"Where you're from, how you're so accomplished, why does Zahrah act like that, do you retu-"

"I think I get the picture. You want to know everything?" He asked, cutting her off to save the both of them a load of time. She nodded happily as he understood what she meant.

"Well," He began, "I was born in Ecruteak, but the important stuff all happened after my mom and dad divorced and she and I moved to the Sinnoh region. I suppose that everything started a few days after my tenth birthday."

* * *

Kanta ran out of his house, his mother waving the lunch that he had forgotten in the air. He forgot it nearly every day without fail, but it didn't matter. He loved school, so he rarely stopped learning long enough to eat. Whether he had his lunch or not, he would just spend the lunch break following his teacher around asking her questions about that day's material.

Today though, there was something else that Kanta had forgotten. It was the day that Professor Rowan would be coming to give a presentation, and hand out starter Pokémon and Pokédexes to the students that had already reached the age of ten.

The young boy's classmates were all a twitter. The roomed buzzed with energy and noise as they all hopped about in their seats. The esteemed professor of evolution stood at the blackboard waiting for the last of the students to shuffle in. Minutes that felt like hours passed before the door was closed. Rowan tapped a ruler on the table to grab the children's attention. Everyone was silent.

"Hello, and welcome to the wonderful world of Pokémon training." He said to the class at large, beginning his speech. "I would like to congratulate you on your success at this institution."

* * *

"Wait..." Anabel interrupted. "Where is this though?"

"Oh, sorry. I lived in Jubilife City. My mom is a weather girl for the TV station there."

"Ah."

"So anyway..."

* * *

"I would also like to talk to you about the possibilities in your future." Continued the expert on evolution. "Some of you may become great masters of Pokémon, others may breed Pokémon that will have the perfect disposition for strength. Some of you may become colleagues in the field of Pok research, while still others could go on to win Pokémon Contests across the world. One of the children in this room, could even become the next champion of Sinnoh." The kids burst with excitement. They yelled, raised their hands, asked questions out of turn, everyone was caught up in Rowan's envisioning of their futures.

He tapped the ruler harder this time. "I hope that in life you will be more patient than this." He said as he stroked his impressive mustache. "Remember, there is a time and place for everything."

Once everyone had settled completely, Rowan spoke once more. "When I call out your name, come up to choose one of the three starter Pokémon and be given the Pokédex that will act as your Trainer ID card. Anderson, Trent!" The first name was called, and immediately the boy rushed to the front. He was given a red Pokédex, and took a Chimchar to match. Eventually everyone else had been called and Rowan spoke the name of the last student in terms of alphabetical order. "Ophia, Kanta."

Kanta walked to the front of the class.

* * *

"Wait."

"What now?"

"Your last name is Ophia?"

"Yeah... Is there something wrong with it?"

"No, it's just nice to know it."

"Okay... Back to the story..."

* * *

The table had three Poké balls laid out. Each containing a Pokémon that somebody else had already chosen. "Is there any chance that you have a Chikorita?" Kanta asked innocently of the region's professor.

"I'm sorry?" Rowan asked for confirmation of the child's odd request.

"Chikorita. I always thought that I would choose one when I became a trainer."

* * *

"Why Cikorita?" Anabel asked.

"I'm getting to it."

"Sorry... "

* * *

"Er... Forgive him sir, it seems this child is from the Johto region."

"Ah. I'm sorry Kanta, but Chikorita live in the Johto region, they would feel out of place here." He replied sadly. "Would you like a Turtwig perhaps? It is a Grass-type as well."

"No, that's fine. May I just have a Pokédex? I would like to stay here until I can get a Pokémon that I know I'll be friends with. I would only resent Turtwig for being not quite Chikorita." He replied.

"I think that would be fine, as long as you promise to study hard." Rowan said in turn. Kanta nodded and shook the professor's outstretched hand in agreement. "Give this boy a Pokédex." He said with a smile.

* * *

"So then what happened?" Anabel interrupted for a fourth time.

"Well, I stayed. I continued to study." The now adult Kanta replied. "I read about the other regions, I learned enough about Pokémon from my Pokédex that I know most of their entries on sight, and I figured out what I wanted to do."

"And what was that?"

"I decided that I wanted to challenge the Champion. The one I decided to challenge was defeated before I could battle him, but that just meant that Cynthia was an even greater challenge. I'm getting ahead of myself... Anyway.."

* * *

"Don't be late for dinner; your father is coming to visit!" Lila Ophia yelled after her son, now twelve years old.

"I won't mom!" He yelled back as he peddled faster toward Sandgem Town. He was going to Professor Rowan's lab, as he did every Sunday, to help in field studies.

* * *

"Wait a second..." Anabel interjected, trying as hard as she could to interrupt softly.

"What is it this time?"

"You expect me to believe that you worked with the foremost expert on Pokémon evolution?"

"Yeah. You asked how I had become so successful. Well, I had a Professor's personal tutelage."

"I guess that does make sense."

"I should hope so." He said with a chuckle before continuing.

* * *

As had become routine, Kanta rode his bike straight for a ledge and hopped for extra air time. The ride was smooth, but the landing was a little harder than usual. His back tire popped on a sharp rock, which sent him skidding into the tall grass.

He stood, brushed himself off briefly, checked for future scars, and then looked to his bike. He wouldn't be riding the rest of the way, or back. He sighed and resigned himself to hoofing it.

Suddenly, there was a scream-like cry from around twenty yards away. He turned to look at the ruckus and saw three Starly swooping to attack some unseen creature. The budding trainer rushed toward them and rolled to grab the Pokémon on the receiving end of the attacks, protecting it from the onslaught of Starly's Arial Ace.

As the Starly looked around for their prey, Kanta ran for cover. He looked down at the Pokémon in his arms and realized what it was. The small Shinx looked up at him with a scowl before letting her gaze soften. She mewed softly, raising her head to look around for something.

* * *

"Was that Fiera?"

"Yes. Please stop interrupting."

"Sorry, I'm just surpri."

* * *

"Come on, let's get to Rowan's lab." He said to the Flash Pokémon cradled in his arms. He darted for Sandgem town. The Starly cawed behind him, rushing to attack their electric-type prey. Kanta whistled as loud as he could, in both an attempt to scare off the Starly, and to alert the people of Sandgem that their help was needed.

In the end, Kanta escaped with only a few pecks, and with his first Pokémon in his hands. He spent the next few weeks getting Fierra used to him and her leg healed. They trained, and with her by his side, he traveled the region, capturing more Pokémon for Rowan to research, defeating gym leaders, and everything else under the sun.

Eventually, after nearly two years, it came time for him to challenge the Elite Four. He stood at the top of the ladder at the Sinnoh Conference with Fierra, Claire, and the members of his old team at his side. The Elite four however, proved more challenging than he had anticipated. He was able to defeat Aaron and Bertha, but Flint, with his raging fire Pokémon, had soundly defeated the remaining members of his party.

Kanta returned home, hurt and downtrodden.

* * *

"What do you mean you went home?" Anabel asked.

"I mean that I went home, to Jubilife. I spent about a month going over what had happened, and I seriously questioned my abilities as a trainer."

"What made you keep trying then?"

"Well.."

* * *

Kanta was ordered out of the house by his mother. He had spent six weeks wallowing, and she would hear nothing more of it. She was not the kind of woman to back down once she had made up her mind, so he knew better than to try and stay in. Besides, she wanted him to go buy food for the house.

The trainer took Fierra, and went to the market as instructed. It was there that he met his first girlfriend, somebody that he still thought of as the most amazing woman he had ever met.

* * *

"You met her at the super market?" Anabel

"Yeah."

"Why was there a Gardevoir in the supermarket."

"What?"

"Why was Zahrah in the supermarket when you met her?"

"I wasn't talking about Zahrah! I said my girlfriend!"

"I just assumed that you me-"

"That I was a Poképhile?!" He asked with a glare.

"It's just that... You and she seem so close."

Kanta breathed deeply, calming himself once more with the aura of the Milotic. "I'll just continue."

* * *

Her name was Marceline, and she was a Pokémon breeder. Her hair was a perfect golden color, and she had watched Kanta's tournament matches in the previous month. They hit it off instantly, she seemed to know everything about him, and weeks passed as though it were a happy dream. They spent every day together, talking about ideals and truths, speaking of the things that they loved about training, breeding, but especially battling. They went to Rowan's lab together, visited the beach in Sandgem town, and searched the underground for the rarest fossils.

The world was good for a few more weeks before reality came knocking. On one not so special day, Marceline suddenly brought up the next championship. She simply asked, as though it were nothing more than simple conversation: "Are you going to be entering this year?"

"I... I don't know... Why do you ask?"

"I don't think that you should is all."

"And why is that?" His tone had held a certain acid and indignation that simply could not be replicated on a whim.

"You still use the same team of Pokémon Kanta, and with Pokémon like Kricketune on it, I don't see your challenge going any better than last time."

Kanta was shocked. Nobody had ever insulted his party like this. His Kricketune had helped him to beat the gym leaders all over the Sinnoh region, especially Gardenia. His Staraptor had been close to him since he had caught it. They had flown everywhere together. He was hurt hearing that the girl he loved thought of them this way.

"I can't just abandon them." He finally said.

"I would never suggest that, but I would say that your team could use some reworking."

"Reworking how?" He asked indignantly.

"By replacing some of your Pokémon. If you want to be able to beat Cynthia, you're going to need to match, and overcome her." She replied, her voice sweet and calm. "If you let me help you to breed the new members of your team, you could take the Elite Four by storm!"

"And what would you have me do with my friends?"

"Let Professor Rowan keep them, or my parents at the ranch. They would take care of them for you."

"I... Can't just leave them..." He said plaintively.

"You can, but you won't, and that's your choice, but I will tell you that you could have whatever you want on your team. Some Pokémon just won't be able to do well against those that we consider elite."

That was the last time they spoke that week. Kanta resigned to thinking about what she had said, and Marceline simply continued her training as a breeder, waiting for him to come to his senses.

Kanta knocked on her door a week later, with only two Pokémon at his side. Marceline's mother answered, but before he could even utter a word, she simply pointed to their barn.

"Thank you ma'am." He said as he turned to go.

He looked to both of the Poké balls on his belt as he walked. His belt felt lighter, but his heart was heavy. He missed his team mates already, despite how happy they had seemed to be left in the care of someone that they trusted as much as Rowan. It still hurt.

He could see her in the distance as he approached. She knelt before a small group of Pachirisu, feeding them a mix of poffin crumbs. He looked upon her with little resentment, and even with what had just happened, he couldn't help but think of her as someone that he loved. She smiled at him as she stood. His heart beat faster from just looking at her.

"So," Kanta began. "what do you want to do?"


	8. Chapter 8 Follow Up

**I'm sorry that this took so long to get to you guys, but my computer died during Winter break and it just took me this long to get a new one, gain access to my hard drive, and finish it up. So once again, I'm sorry for the wait, and I'm sorry that it's a bit short, but I hope you guys enjoy it.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Follow Up**

The sun was already nearing the horizon when they neared the sevii islands. It cast a reflection upon the water that made it look as though the sky and sea were one in the same, joined only by the glowing ball that acted as a hinge. Just as the group had reached the island, so too had Kanta's story reached a suitable stopping place.

The Milotic that led their ship slithered onto the shore, dragging the boat until it was completely out of the water. The rest of the group followed, setting up their meager campsite of two tents rather quickly. It had been decided that Greta, Kanta, and most likely Zahrah, would share one tent, while the other would be used by Anabel and Lucy.

Their small rations were eaten in earnest before they all crawled into the tents. The ground was soft when compared to the cold steel of the vessel that had carried them this far; sleep came easily for all but one of their group.

Kanta writhed within his sleeping bag, nightmares having already stirred him from the half hour of sleep he had managed in the two hours since they had all seen fit to slip into bed. He all but ripped his sleeping bag off and continued out the door of the tent quietly. The care he took in his steps he knew was in vain however, Greta was a trained martial artist, if she wished to wake to his shallow breathing she could.

Somehow Kanta did make it out of the tent without waking his companion and was free to sit by the calm sea. The moon reflected off of the waves, lighting the darkness as though the ocean itself was overflowing with light.

"Can't sleep?" Anabel asked as she walked calmly toward the restless trainer. She giggled as he jumped from the unexpected sound of her voice. He tried to play it off as though he was just getting up to greet her, but that just made her laugh a bit harder.

"No... I can't." The shirtless brunette replied, a bit disgruntled that he had been laughed at by the younger girl. He crossed his arms in an attempt to cover his chest, somehow feeling selfconcious being even half naked in front of any girl. She laughed again.

"Would you like to keep talking?" She asked after receiving his glare. When his glare only changed into a downtrodden look to the lower left of his vision, she revised her question. "Maybe about why you can't sleep?"

"I... I guess so." He said as he dropped back into a seated position. Anabel sat next to quietly him in seiza. She didn't speak. She just looked at him expectantly until he began. "I had a..." He stopped, slightly embarrassed and wishing completely that he had a more adult sounding reason to be awake.

"You had a what?" The empath pressed gently.

"I had a nightmare." Kanta replied, happy that he hadn't had to use the words: 'bad dream.'

"What about?" Anabel urged him to continue as she inched a bit nearer.

Kanta inched away. "A little girl that I found in the Battle Tower." Anabel drew closer again, softly touching his arm in an attempt to make him feel better that was as futile as it was obvious. "She was beaten so badly... I think that it was a Hitmonchan... Or maybe a Machamp... She..." Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke of the girl. He rubbed his eyes on his sleeve as he continued. "Her entire body felt like a wet sandbag and in the dream I had... She kept talking... She would cough blood in my face and she kept saying that it was my fault for leaving the tower early. I wasn't there to protect her an-"

"Stop!" Anabel screamed. She held her head in her hands, pressing on her temples to try and dull her psychic sensitivities. It took a few few tear filled moments before she could raise her head again. "I'm sorry," She began as she too wiped tears away from her eyes. "it's just hard to take in so much pain... You really love children don't you."

"Er... Yeah... I always wanted to have at least three once I retired..."

"Did you want to have them with Marceline?" Anabel asked, innocently trying to change the subject.

Her companion laughed uncomfortably. "I did."

"Would you keep going with your story?" Asked Anabel. When Kanta didn't so much reply as he did just look to the shimmering horizon, she pressed on. "Please?"

"Fine." He said with a sigh. "Well, from there we went to Rowan's Lab, where most of my previously captured Pokémon were."

* * *

"Kanta, Marceline. What brings you here today?" Rowan asked, greeting his aide and his girlfriend with a handshake. "I thought that you would be hard at work breeding you next team."

"That's why we're here sir." Marceline spoke first. "I have a list that the two of us compiled, and I was wondering if I may be able to borrow some of the Pokémon in your care so that we may complete it." She held out a piece of paper with the list of Pokémon printed on it.

After looking it over for a few seconds, Professor Rowan looked to Kanta. "How many of these Pokémon do you want on your team Kanta?" He asked, thinking that perhaps Marceline was overstepping her bounds. He knew that the girl meant well, but she could be a bit headstrong at times.

"All of them sir, I already made the substitutions that I thought you would appreciate." He replied happily. "Instead of a Garchomp, I would rather have a Salamence, and rather than use a Gastrodon, I thought that it would be nice to have a Milotic on my team."

Rowan smiled proudly at his aide's choices. He had chosen two Pokémon that exemplified Rowan's theories of Pokémon evolution, but there was one more, rather incredible word on the list that Kanta had neglected to mention. "And, what of this Pokémon?" He asked as he pointed to a species named on the list. "You know very well that none of my aides have ever captured something of that caliber."

"Good," Marceline began. "I'm glad that you noticed it. Would you please try and talk some sense into him?"

"I don't think it would do any more good than when you tried. All I can do is ask where you plan to capture such a powerful Pokémon."

"There are multiple volcanoes north of Sinnoh. I'll just have to wait until I have enough Pokémon to make it easy, and then I'll capture a Heatran!" Kanta vowed, pumping his fist into the air

Both Marceline and Rowan sighed before the latter spoke. "I can easily return to you the Bagon and Feebas that you lent to me, but for the Gallade that you want, I'm sad to say that I have none of that evolutionary line in my possession. I do however have a colleague that may be able to send one to me."

"Would you be willing to contact him for us sir?" Kanta asked politely of the Fatherly man before him.

* * *

"Er... Kanta... Can you skip forward a bit?" Anabel asked in the present day.

"Sure, I guess so. Long story short we got a Gardevoir from Professor Birch, and my Feebas and Bagon back from Professor Rowan. I don't want to go into the details of Pokémon Breeding, and to be honest, I don't really understand how most of it works beyond the superstition of holding an Everstone will make the baby more like the holder, but at any rate, over the next year Marceline bred my team. We continued dating, and I trained the new babies slowly but surely, and at the end of the year, I had my team, with only one missing, and one substitution."

"What were they?" She asked, urging him to continue his talk of those happy memories.

"I hadn't yet gone to catch Cadfael, and instead of a Gallade, I had a Gardevoir on my team."

"Why did you end up keeping a female Ralts if you wanted a Gallade then?"

"Well, their mother was only on loan for a few weeks, and we had to return her."

Anabel was still obviously confused. "But then why not just raise the Ralts into a Gardevoir quickly and then breed using that one?"

"Well, that was what we had thought that we would do, but when the twins hatched-"

"Twins?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Zahrah has a sister, since they both hatched on the same day, Marceline and I called them twins. Her sister's name is Satomi by the way. She's with Marceline..." Kanta looked back to the sky. It was filled with enough stars in the dead of the night that the entire sky looked like a crystalline sphere, the shimmers themselves caused by edges etched in by time. "God... I just wish that I knew that they were safe..."

"Kanta...? Are you alright?" Anabel asked. Knowing the answer didn't mean that asking was worth any less.

"Yeah. I'll be fine. It's the two of them and my mom back home that I'm worried about." Kanta breathed deeply, regaining his composure. Feeling sorry for himself and worrying about others wouldn't do him any good. He needed to focus, or at least keep his mind away from thoughts of the demise of his loved ones. "Ready for me to continue?"

"Sure." She replied with a smile.

"When the twins hatched, Marceline and I both fell in love. They were the cutest little things, and we both had a favorite that we each doted on them completely, mine being the considerably weaker willed Zahrah, and hers being the more emotionally grounded Satomi. But it didn't last. After a final seven months of training, my entire team felt ready, and when the Sinnoh league championship tournament began, we were all ready. It had been nearly a year since Marceline and I began training together, and our hours of work showed in the eyes of my Pokémon."

"Did you win?"

"Yeah, we won. Cadfael, Fiera, Sakhr, Zahrah, Claire, and Tia, the six best friends I've ever had." He said proudly.

"Then why aren't you the champion of Sinnoh?" The young psychic asked skeptically.

"I didn't want to stay. I told Cynthia to stay, I still had traveling that I wanted to do, other plans that I hadn't finished, dreams that hadn't yet come true."

"But you were a champion... Isn't that the big dream for trainers?"

"Maybe for some, but I thought it was just a hassle. Hell, I did the same thing in Hoenn, and Steven was cool with it too. They're better suited to it, I've got itchy feet. He understood pretty well how I felt, given his connections to Devon Corp."

"How is it a hassle?"

"I dunno, maybe the thousands of people trying to defeat you all the time." He replied. "I like my peace."

"I guess that makes sense..." She said sadly. "You should be more proud of your accomplishments Kanta. It's amazing to be at that level."

"I'm not though, my Pokémon are. Those accomplishments are only mine through extension, it was my team that beat Cynthia's, not I that defeated her."

"Now you're just arguing semantics."

"No," He replied again. "I'm arguing over philosophy. Master implies slave, and to think that because I gave them pushes in the right direction I am instantly better than another trainer would be nothing more than hubris. My Pokémon are simply more experienced."

"But Pokémon can't fight without orders from their trainers."

"Another misconception. Pokémon battle in the wild, without ever being told an order a Pokémon will be a fierce fighter."

She looked at him with a bit of understanding. "I guess I can see it that way." After a few moments of silence, Anabel spoke up again. "So what did you do after that?"

"Well, after we won, I went back home again. I spent a good three weeks in Jubilife with Marceline deciding on my next move." Kanta paused for a second but began again quickly when he saw Anabel blush as she opened her mouth for another question. "No, we didn't do anything like that. We were staying interchangeably at either one of our parent's houses. You know what, I'm just going to halt questions like that now. I'm a virgin, I have never slept with anyone, or any Pokémon."

"Oh." She said, her cheeks flushing an even deeper shade of red. She turned away from her companion's gaze. "I guess that is somehow comforting to know." She continued, being able to confirm his honesty with her abilities.

"Okay. Good. Now no more talk of illicit actions Anabel..." He said with complete finality. "At any rate, we both spoke seriously about what each of us wanted, and eventually, we decided that we shouldn't see each other any more. I left for Hoenn the next day. Not much happened while I was taking on the Hoenn league, but everybody did reach a pretty high level, and after I beat Steven, which was considerably easier than defeating Cynthia I might add., I came to the battle frontier."

"Seems like the Hoenn league still took a long time to complete though."

"It did, but that's mostly from travel time, and the fact that I wanted to see the sights in each city."

"That's nice. Did you have any favorite cities?" Anabel asked, happy to know that her new found friend had so enjoyed his time going through the region she called home.

"I guess that Alto Mare had some appeal." Kanta replied with a yawn. He had been chased away from sleep by nightmares so what little he had had meant very little actual rest for the weary traveler.

"Do you think that you might be able to sleep now?" Asked the empathetic girl with a sweet smile emblazend on her face.

"Not really, but I should probably try to anyway, if only to keep Greta off my case and keep Zahrah from worrying." He replied as he stood to brush away the sand from his pants.

"Goodnight then."

"Are you going to bed too?"

"No. I think that I'll keep looking at the stars for now. I like watching them move." Replied the newly cryptic psychic. Kanta thought it best not to pry and continued off to bed. The girl had a back story that deserved its own attention, its own chapter of their life to delve into.

As he lay next to Greta, a slight flash lit the tent as one Pokémon let herself out of her ball. "Kanta?" Zahrah asked, pressing her voice gently into his mind. "Where did you go?"

"Nowhere Zahrah, just the beach. I couldn't sleep, but I should be fine now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just... Just go to sleep."

"Alright Kanta dear." She replied softly, slipping under the covers next to him as she spoke, her bashful nature shining through as the emotions she poured into his mind were that of a blushing bride. She nestled her head into her trainer's chest and whined plaintively as his mind wandered to his aversion to their closeness. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No Zahrah, I just..." _It's too hard to tell her how I feel... _He could feel Zahrah's spirits fly as he thought those words. It was obvious that she had taken his words to mean quite the opposite of what he had meant them to be. She lundged for him and ignored all external stimuli.

"It's fine if you can't tell me now, I can wait." She paused a moment so that she could gather a bit more courage than she could usually contain in her slight frame. "I love you."

"Sure Zahrah... Sure." The trainer replied, a tinge of remorse coating his voice in sorrow.

Kanta received no peaceful escape into dreams that night. The girl that Kanta loved like a daughter thought of him in a manner that he wasn't sure that he could deal with forever. She had grown up so quickly, reaching the mental prowess of a twenty year old woman only shortly after having evolved into a Gardevoir.

She was mature enough to make hard decisions now, but the way that her view of him differed from his of her was drastic. After all, Zahrah could feel only love from her trainer's mind, she had no way to know what kind of love it was, and if he was truly honest with himself, sometimes it was a blurry distinction.

Zahrah had become his closest companion over the four years that they had been together, and it was becoming more and more difficult to keep seeing the mature woman that still somehow depended on him as his little girl. She wasn't a child, and she hadn't been one in years.

He knew that these issues would be on his mind even after the sun rose as he listened to the rise and fall of Zahrah's chest as she breathed into the crook of his neck. Anabel would be able to sense the quandry that Zahrah would ignore as she usually did. He was going to have to speak with the pubesent girl about things that most adults had a hard time fathoming. If his god would still care, he would be praying.

Kanta didn't sleep.


	9. Chapter 9 Only You

**Sorry that this chapter took so long, but I have been busy ruining my school life. In an attempt to un-ruin it, I will be taking a hiatus from writing until after finals. I apologize to you all, but my school work will always come first. I hope that you guys enjoy this one though, because it's the only one that you'll be getting until May 25th at the earliest.**

* * *

**Chapter 9 – Only you**

**August 19th**

The sun crept over the horizon, slowly bringing its light into both tents. The sky was littered with clouds colored with brilliant, prismatic reds, pinks, oranges, and shades of gold that caused the deep sea to glow in reflection of its perfection. Those who had not been awake throughout the night woke then and emerged from their tents along with the two that had been chased from dreams by the black steads of Hypnos.

Greta, a morning person by nature, greeted the sun by leading Kanta and her Pokémon through basic stretches and kattas as a groggy Zahrah and Anabel watched. Lucy seemed to have sneaked away, but seeing as she had taken her team with her, there was no real cause for worry. She would be fine.

"Zahrah," Anabel began. "I've been meaning to ask, how do you feel about Kanta?" The young psychic said this sentence as though each word was a footfall onto wafer thin ice. The last thing that she wanted to offend the Gardevoir, or worse, her trainer. Despite this tact, Zahrah still looked embarrassed.

"He's... He's my..." Zahrah stammered. She struggled to force more words to Anabel's mind, but each were more inaudible than the last. She blushed as she stopped, bringing her hands to rest in her lap. A few moments passed as Zahrah collected her thoughts through the use of Calm Mind. "Kanta is my trainer."

"Is that all you think of him as though?"Anabel pressed forward gently, whispering of course, so as not to alert the subject of their conversation.

* * *

"You know that they're talking about you right?" Greta chided.

"I hadn't noticed." Kanta said sarcastically, dutifully continuing to perfect his stance.

"It's probably because you're topless, I mean, anybody would gawk at your curves." She replied with a snicker, receiving only a glare in response from her pupil.

* * *

"I... I don't know how... How to answer..." Zahrah's words were still forced past a wall of her own emotions, but thanks to Calm Mind she was at least able to voice her opinions.

"Do you love him?"

"Yes."

"In what way?"

"I... I shouldn't talk about it."

"It should be fine if it's just us."

* * *

"Their talking about feelings." Greta continued to giggle.

"I know, shut up."

"Are you dropping eaves?"

"No, I'm trying to block it out."

"Awww... the bashful little school girl doesn't like the attention he's getting?"

"Shut up." Kanta groaned, continuing his katas dutifully.

* * *

"I love him like Juliet loved Romeo." Zahrah replied finally, her cheeks still a bright red, a soft smile now curling her lips. Anabel too blushed at the intensity of her friend's words. "I... I can't.. I-"

"Zahrah, how about we get a little farther from Kanta, maybe that will help you calm down." She spoke in whispers and motioned for the Gardevoir to follow suit. They walked away from Kanta and Greta in favor of the shade that could be found next to the cliff that jutted up from the ground.

"I don't really think that there's any more to say." Said Zahrah as the two of them leaned against the wall of the cliff.

"Wouldn't you just like to talk? Isn't it hard to keep all of your feelings for him under wraps?"

"I don't. He knows how I feel."

"But how does he react to them?" Anabel asked, trying not to make it wholly obvious that she supported the two of them. "Does he ever kiss you?"

"Ye...Yes. We've kissed before." Anabel beamed at Zahrah even as they both turned beat red.

"How did he do it?" The younger girl asked.

"The normal way I suspect..." Zahrah replied, rather confused. She had never thought about there being more than one way to kiss.

"Well, how did it feel the first time?" Anabel pressed, curious about how this phenomena was executed. After all, she had never kissed anyone herself.

"It felt nice. Warm. His hands were a little sweaty, but that was because we had just beaten the Sinnoh league Champion. He was excited."

"That's weird... The way Kanta was talking about things last night, it seemed like he wouldn't kiss you in front of a lot of people like that."

"It was rather sudden... He just ran up to me after I had knocked out Steven's Aggron and he kissed me with both hands. I was so taken aback that I nearly hit him." Zahrah's face was now resolutely red, with no signs of changing back to its usual color.

"Wait.. With his... Hands?"

"Well, yeah."

Anabel thought back to Zahrah's choice of words. I love him like Juliet loved Romeo. _Was that where she got her idea of love from?_ After a minute or so of silent thought from Anabel, she suddenly grabbed Zahrah's hands, lifting them gently and entwining her own fingers between the three that Zahrah had. She looked into Zahrah's face and saw that she had closed what were now tear filled eyes.

"Zahrah, do-"

"Kanta!" Screamed the embarrassed embrace Pokémon as she tore her hands from Anabel's and ran toward the beach. She darted in between Greta and Kanta, currently mid spar, and began sobbing uncontrollably into her trainer's chest as she tackled him.

Kanta could only make out a few legible thoughts amidst her muffled internal cries. Something about "not wanting," "Anabel," and something else about kisses. It gave him very little to go on, and judging by how disconnected the third seemed from the previous two, it was hard to think of this as anything more than a "one of these things is not like the others" game. She was closely followed by Anabel, who knelt next to the both of them, much to Zahrah's dismay.

"Zahrah, I'm so-" Anabel received a slap from the distraught Pokémon before she went back to crying.

"Zahrah... What's wrong..." Kanta said, trying his best to sound comforting despite his confusion.

"She... She kiss... She kissed me!" She replied through sobs. She lifted a delicate hand to direct her accusation toward the girl who she felt had wronged her. Kanta looked at Anabel, shocked by his Gardevoir's words. Greta, not wanting to feel left out, mimicked this expression, followed closely by her Hariyama and Medicham.

"I didn't kiss her, I just put our hands together."

"That _is _a kiss!" Zahrah replied with the mental version of a scream.

"Zahra, calm down." Kanta said, cringing from the strain caused by the pressure her psychic tantrums caused. "That's not what a kiss is. It's okay, you've still never been kissed..." He continued, trying to console her about her feared loss of purity. More tears came after that, this time from the realization that she and Kanta had never even gotten to first base.

Minutes passed like hours for Kanta whenever Zahrah cried, and with him completely in the dark about the specifics of her turmoil, all he could do was continue hugging her. Greta, her Pokémon, and Anabel, sensing the awkwardness of the situation, went off to start whatever they could for breakfast.

It took a few minutes for Zahrah's cries to become sobs, a few more for them to stop completely. Her trainer used his thumb to gently wipe her tear streaked cheeks as she let out one last whimpering noise.

"What's wrong? Aren't you happy that she didn't kiss you?" Asked the confused trainer.

"No!.. Well.. Yes, but..." Zahrah began, stopping periodically to try and collect her thoughts. "But that also means that you and I haven't either..."

Kanta's eyes widened slightly. Being dumbfounded was his only response.

"And besides, if that's not a kiss, what is?" Zahrah asked plaintively.

"B... Before I answer that, I have to ask you a question. Where did you get the idea that that was a kiss?" He asked, grasping for information.

"Romeo and Juliet kissed like that." She replied stubbornly. "At the party, they put their hands together and that was supposed to be their kiss."

Kanta chuckled softly, gaining only a look of scorn from the embrace Pokémon. "Zahrah, the reason that they were kissing like that was because of the original actors." She tilted her head in confusion, pressing him to continue his explanation. "A long time ago, women weren't allowed to act, so Juliet was played by a man. It wasn't exactly fine to have to men kissing on stage, even if one was dressed in drag, so they had to just press their hands together." He spoke as he stroked her hair softly.

"Oh..." She said before asking her question again. "Then... What is a real kiss?"

"Well... Basically people just press their lips together." The brunette trainer explained as simply as possible. Zahrah looked up at him expectantly, as if waiting for a demonstration. Kanta stood abruptly. "Why don't we go get breakfast?" He asked, quickly changing the subject away from that uncomfortable topic.

Pouting, Zahrah agreed by following Kanta over to the campfire where a newly returned Lucy sat with Greta, Anabel, and their Pokémon frying eggs. This initially seemed like a great thing, but after a few moments it came to Anabel's attention that there had been no eggs in the Pokémart that they had stocked up from. The fact that this realization came at the same time as an exceptionally loud call from some Flying-types in the distance wasn't something that came as a comfort.

"Lucy, where did you get these eggs from?" She asked calmly, listening with worry as the cries of what she could now identify as Fearow grew louder.

"I found them in a nest that had fallen out of a tree." The snake-haired thief replied as she stood, bringing a hand to her belt for security's sake.

"You really are deplorable..." Spoke the only male in the group of trainers as he mimicked the girl he scolded. The swarm of birds now created a small cloud of orange and crimson as they continued to draw in. "Anabel, I need your Pokémon to help Zahrah erect a really thick barrier. Everybody else, you might want to stand back, judging by what we know, this is going to be just about as dangerous as standing in a natural thunderstorm." With a look of mixed shock and cunfusion, Greta, Anabel, and even Lucy followed his instructions as he threw Fiera's Pokéball toward the Fearow. Light filled the area as Anabel and Kanta both released Pokémon.

Kanta waited until the barriers were erected between them and his gleam eyes Pokémon before he gave out his next orders. "Zahrah, use Protect as soon as you see Fiera's feet move. I want it in front of their barriers." As soon as that order was called he looked toward the electric-type that stood with a villainous grin streaked across her face. Fiera relished the chance to try out her new found power out on a living target rather than just some trees. It was obvious that she was ready for battle.

"Fiera, jump in and discharge at full power!" Kanta gave the order with a definitive point and Fiera wasted no time. In an instant her body was surrounded by lightning that shone brighter that the sun. Her mane stood perfectly upright, yellow electricity darting from follicle to follicle as she readied herself with a roar. She darted forward, jumping toward the Fearow that swooped down toward her, jumping off of them as she forced her way to their epicenter. The Pokémon that she made her prey converged upon her, clouding the shining lightning from view for just a moment before they met their end.

Suddenly, the smell of charred flesh filled the area. Birds fell from the sky like rocks, now black from the explosion and lightning strikes that continued to skate along the ground, leaving behind trails of molten glass on sand and barren earth on what was once grass. Force from the initial blast broke through both Zahrah's and Espeon's farthest barriers, creating a sound that was reminiscent of shattering windows.

Fiera finally landed, looking around proudly at the devastation that she had caused. An entire flock of Fearow that would once have required a certain level of exersion now were worth nothing more than a passing glance. One attack and they had all been ripped away from the world. Fiera breathed in the air of her fresh kill. The pure ozone that she had created mixed with the scent of roasted bird beckoned to her to take a taste of her kill's flesh.

"Return." Kanta called, a hint of disgust on his brow, brought on partially by the sickeningly sweet scent that came from the still steaming carcasses of the newly dead beak Pokémon, and partially from the fact that he had just ordered said deaths. Red light flashed from Fiera's ball as she bit out a chunk of a particularly plump Fearow's breast.

Anabel looked in horror at the scene that had just played out before her. Beyond the issue of the cost of life, the sheer power and revelry in the depths of her power that Fiera had displayed was frightening. She hoped that her Pokémon did not develop similar tastes.

Kanta whirled on Lucy, a look of pure rage in his eyes. "How could you do this?! Because of your theft, all of these innocent Pokémon are DEAD!"

"I was hungry and I saw eggs, so sue me." Replied the raven locked woman matter-of-factually.

"You.. You were hungry?" The boy's voice shook uncomfortably as he tried to contain his anger. His temperature rose with every second as his words passed between his lips.

"Yeah, and those eggs looked perfectly alone. Nobody was around so I took them."

"You insufferable, selfish whore! Because of you my Pokémon had to kill! Fiera had to protect us a flock of parents in mourning of their children that will never be!" He yelled as he grabbed the frying pan from its perch. He had reached his boiling point. "All this over a few measly eggs... You just couldn't control your basest instincts and now we're surrounded by corpses." He hurled the pan into the ocean, still filled with Lucy's would be breakfast.

"If you're so god damned hungry, eat the Fearow whose deaths you caused!" Kanta yelled before storming off to attend the boat, Zahrah following close behind.

Lucy scoffed at the idea of eating something that currently smelled so fowl as the charred birds did. "Can you believe that guy?" She asked of her two companions. "Scolding me like he's my parent."

"Maybe he doesn't eat meat." Greta remarked as she collected a few Fearows for later meals. She turned one over in her hand, smiling at the results she found. The Fearow had been superheated enough to have plucked, cooked, and further dehydrated them. They were about the consistency of beef jerky, which meant that they would be delectably chewy. "On the bright side, for those of us that do and you two are just ignoring me."

Despite Greta's happiness at her discovery that the Fearow had been dehydrated rapidly, and would as such be preserved longer, Anabel and Lucy continued to bicker over the merit of Kanta's displeasure.

"God Lucy, can't you ever think about anyone but yourself? You could have gotten us all killed if Kanta hadn't been there." Said Anabel, letting a bit of acid slide over her tongue and into her voice. It was a foreign tone for her, but then, she never was much one to attack people, so it made sense that she would be unused to the tone of voice that she used when angry.

"I'm sure that you, Greta, and I could have handled a flock of Fearow." Came the snake woman's rebuttal. Anabel looked at her as though she had lost her last semblance of sanity.

"Oh. Yes, yes, I'm sure as well that the three of us, with our hugely powerful electric types all around, could have easily dealt with it." The young empath replied with the acidic tone that she was currently borrowing from her opponent. "It's not like all of our Pokémon come from either land or sea, without any of them being able to deal with large crowds. Only having ever dealt with one on one and two on two battles, with one or our entire teams being weak to flying types anyway." Words continued to fly from Anabel's mouth. She pointed to Greta when she brought up the type advantage, but otherwise her arms remained crossed over her chest.

Lucy was paralyzed, she couldn't move, she couldn't speak.

"Yeah. We would have been fine." Anabel finally said as she brushed past her older friend.

"Well," Greta began. "on the bright side, we've got Fearows to eat now." the fighter was obviously pleased with one outcome of this altercation. There would be meat for at least a few days.

Lucy scowled at her other friend for her insensitivity to the mood. Greta only smiled back at her, her mouth stretching so wide that it looked as though she had gained the ability to unhinge her jaw.

* * *

Minutes later, the tents had been broken down and packed, the fire stamped out, and the supply trunk was placed back into the boat. The adventurers set out, leaving the beach behind in favor of the berry forest. It was another place that they could restock, and berries could always be used as medicines in a pinch. They set sail, going due west toward the next island in the chain that they were following.

The trip was uneventful and spent in silence. Nobody wanted to speak thanks to the still lingering tension. Better to listen to the waves than the words of those they were uncomfortable with at the moment. Luckily it only took a few hours to reach their destination.

While the sun slowly struggled to climb higher into the sky, Kanta and Greta staked the boat to the shore. Anabel and Lucy placed the trunk onto its all terrain wheels, and pulled it up toward the forest. Once that routine had been completed, the tedious task of berry picking began.

Everyone's Pokémon were loosed upon the abundant forest. Most were happy to enjoy the picking of berries, but Greta's Heracross saw the sap of the trees themselves as a better meal. Zahrah and Alakazam worked by pulling the berries from the trees from the ground, while Greta, Kanta, Anabel, and Lucy climbed into the higher branches to grab what they needed. The work was going rather quickly, with everyone's bags already nearly full after just 30 minutes of work. The compartment in the trunk however, was going to take a bit longer given its size.

The Pokémon of the berry forest payed them no mind as they went about their daily lives. The Pidgey and Pidgeoto hopped from branch to branch and tree to tree along with Venomoth and gnat. The Bellsprout sliced berries from low hanging branches, berries that were soon stolen by the smaller Oddish that scampered about.

The air grew hotter by the minute, and it was silently, but unanimously agreed upon that a break was in order. Anabel took this as her chance. She walked up to Zahrah and her Aalakazam who sat talking in the shade of a particularly large pecha berry tree.

"... too atrophied from my Abra stage." Anabel only caught the tail end of a sentence as she approached, but she could gather that Zahrah had inquired about Alakazam's need to aid his own standing with his psychic abilities.

The young girl waved to the both of them in greeting, receiving a return in the gesture from her own Pokémon, but only a passing glance from Zahrah before she ignored her completely. She was obviously still a bit miffed about the "kiss" that they had shared earlier.

Alakazam elbowed his conversation partner to show his disdain for her present attitude toward his trainer. "Is their something you need mistress?"

"Yes actually. I know that I've asked this before, but times are harder now so I think thank you might give me a more satisfactory answer. I want you to teach me-"

He immediately cut her off. "I cannot do that mistress Anabel." Said the Psi Pokémon flatly.

"Why not?" Anabel began, trying her best not to sound whiny. "If I learned I could help everyone out a lot more! I could help to carry things, and I could-"

Alakazam held a spoon to her lips, silencing her. "You did not let me finish my thought." He scolded. "Which is but a part of why I can not. You are a slave to your emotions and that is something that I cannot be understanding of this plight."

Anabel looked to the ground. It was hard to hear, but she knew it was true. She had always been unafraid to show her emotions, more because she felt that others couldn't keep them from her and that it would be a disservice to them were she to have that one sided advantage then anything else, and it would be against her nature to be any other way. Going against their personality wasn't a good way to train Pokémon, and she couldn't believe that training her would completely ignore that kind of thing.

Her Alakazam chimed in once again. "However, there is another Pokémon that would be the perfect teacher for somebody who's first abilities to awaken were those of an empath." A small smile cracked his lips. It seemed out of place given his usual universally hardened gaze.

"Who?" She asked excitedly, unable to mask her emotions as usual.

Alakazam gestured toward the Embrace Pokémon at his side who had, up until now, been entertaining herself by making leaves dance around a pecha berry as though it was a plant based galaxy. When she noticed the gesture, she was instantly curious as to why she had come up in their conversation, but did her best to stay aloof, continuing the elliptical orbits of her little milky way, but just as Anabel couldn't hide her emotions from anyone, Zahrah couldn't hide her curiosity from either of the Psychics that spoke beside her.

"You would be a perfect match," Spoke the Psi Pokémon. "you both draw your abilities from your emotions, the exact opposite of myself who must push emotion away to be of any use."

"Will you teach me Zahrah?" Asked the empathetic young teen, a hint of desperation ringing in her voice. She needed to become somebody that her friends could depend on. Somebody who would be able to stay alive without her Pokémon. Lucy was street smart, Greta was a martial arts master, and Kanta was a genius who had studied under the great Professor Rowan and as if that wasn't enough, he was learning karate from Greta. Anabel only had her ability to talk to and understand the feelings of Pokémon, and with them having orders to kill given to them by a god, she didn't think that it would be quite as useful as it had been.

"I..."

Alakazam shot her a soft, pleading glance before feeding a thought into her mind. "Please help her. None of us would ever be able to teach a psychic who draws from her emotions as you could." Zahrah still looked reluctant, so he pressed further. "If you help her with this, I will be eternally indebted to you, as will she."

"I.. I guess that it can't be helped."

"Thank you Zahrah!" Anabel said with a smile. "Can we start now?"

"I suppose so... It isn't really that hard, so it shouldn't take long." Zahrah said calmly as she stood. "First," She let the pecha berry drop into her palm, changing the orbit of the leaves into that of electrons surrounding an atom. "think about connecting your soul with the soul of the berry." She explained. "Then think about lifting it."

Anabel nodded resolutely before raising her arm toward her teacher's outstretched hand. She did as she was told. She thought about the berry in the Gardevoir's palm as becoming one with herself, and tried even harder to force it to rise up. This went on for a few minutes before the berry finally shook. It could best be described as trying to have performed a push-up, but having let its arms collapse, it fell again. She focused harder on what she wanted the berry to do.

She lost focus when a sudden gust of wind brought on the foulest stench that she had ever experienced. It was like rotting earth, dung, and flesh. It brought tears to her eyes and caused bile to well up in her throat. She couldn't hold it back for long. Unable to stand, she dropped to her knees and vomited on the grass. She saw Zahrah and Alakazam cover their noses, blocking out the scent completely with a thin barrier.

It wasn't until Lucy screamed that everyone could else saw what was the cause of the scent that assaulted their nostrils. It didn't take long to realize afterward what Ho-Oh had done to the Grimer that oozed along the ground toward them. They were nothing more than acid now. The ground sizzled and popped behind them, it rotted away like they were the horseman of plague.

Kanta yelled some order that Anabel couldn't hear. He was a bit to far away for it to reach her ears, but she saw Greta and Lucy nod as they returned their Pokémon. It was hard to even think with this putrid smell that surrounded them, and yet this physically unassuming trainer was able to yell out commands that could snap Anabel's colleagues out of their confusion. She tried to choke down another torrent of bile that crept up her esophagus and raised her Alakazam's ball to follow Kanta's directions.

"Don't." Zahrah said as she took the Poké ball away from her new pupil. "Kanta wants he and I to erect a barrier. He has a plan."

_Does he not have a sense of smell? How could anyone be alright through this?_ She looked to Kanta as she listened to Zahrah's thoughts flooding her head. "Only you could think of something like this."


	10. Chapter 10 Agreed

**Okay guys, here it is, the tenth chapter of The Convergance. Four days earlier than expected too! Sorry that it is so short, and, as always, thank you for reading, and please alert me of any mistakes that I missed in a review.**

* * *

**Chapter 10 - Agreed**

The Muk, Grimer, and Koffing continued to drift closer and closer, bringing with them an indescribably horrible scent. Their bodies were like factories, bubbling up with each movement and releasing noxious fumes into the air with great burps. The smell was difficult to ignore for any of them, but it was better for Kanta, Greta, and Lucy who stood upwind of the cause, then it was for Anabel who stood directly in its path.

"Zahrah, can you get me out of here?" Her sentence was interspersed with coughs and swallows as she tried to fight back a second torrent of bile that threatened to spew forth. It was only as the two of them blinked out and then back into existence by Kanta's side that a bit of relief came, but it was short lived. Anabel, unused to the act of teleportation, succumbed to the sickness that was observed by most who were suddenly ripped in and out of their own plane of existence. The rest of her party cringed, both in pity for their friend and an inherent aversion to her vomit.

Lucy knelt to tend to her friend as Kanta held the Poké ball containing Tia out, letting her loose upon the world. He explained as calmly as he could given the circumstances that everyone needed to hurry onto her back, returning all non-Psychic Pokémon to their spherical homes before looking around for Anabel's allied Alakazam.

It was quite a spectacle to behold. Alakazam walked calmly forward, his path soon blocked by the putrid horde that was causing such alarm. He looked at them with only a subtle glance that was filled with disdain and disgust before he parted the sea of attacking sludge by simply clapping his hands and throwing them out again. As he pushed out his hands, he also forced a sphere of psychic energy that pushed back the objects of his hatred. They had caused his mistress unneeded distress, and the girl he viewed as both his friend and sister, the woman who he had grown up alongside, was the only thing he truly cared for. Anyone who hurt her deserved much worse than what he could cause.

The Muk and Grimer sizzled as they were pushed back. Pops and hisses resounded as their gasses were forced into oblivion by Alakazam's Psychic attack. He had never been gladder for the type advantage he possessed over Poison-Types like these. He looked back to his trainer and strengthened his resolve. He pushed himself toward their group faster, forming his orb into the shape of a bullet and tearing through the sludge that surrounded him, allowing himself a personal moment of rage filled glee as his enemies continued to lose what little form they had as they shrieked and retreated from simply touching the manifestation of his mental prowess.

"Glad you could make it." Kanta remarked as Alakazam skidded to a halt. He nodded his response before kneeling beside Anabel, worry streaking across his face.

"I'm fine Alakazam." She lurched and swallowed back. "Really."

"If you want to help her, then follow my orders for a while." He waited for a nod from Alakazam but got something better. The Psi Pokémon stood at attention, raising his spoons, ready for battle. "We need a hole."

Alakazam could only stare at him, perplexed and slightly annoyed that the order for the blood of Grimer had not come.

"Don't worry, it'll all work out." Kanta explained as Greta and Lucy helped Anabel onto Tia's back, closely followed by Zahrah and Greta's Medicham. "Just make a hole for me, and we can get down to business."

Alakazam decided it best to simply do without his answer as to why this hole was so important and went throught the motions of cutting out a 6 foot deep circle in the ground. He looked back to Kanta and motioned to the hole. "Ka-Zam?" He asked forcefully for confirmation of the hole's utility.

"That'll be great, now hop on!" He said from his seat, his legs draping on either side of Tia's neck. Alakazam was quick to follow this order as the dragon began to beat her wings.

Once they were high enough into the air to escape the fumes, Kanta sighed. "Man I hope this works." He prayed briefly under his breath. "As soon as Cadfael's in there, I need a barrier around him. It needs to have multiple layers, and it needs to let his attack through." He explained to Zahrah, Alakazam, and Medicham. "Don't worry about protecting him from heat, but rather, force is the enemy here."

Once they had all nodded their understanding, Kanta let loose his legendary lord of the battlefield. He aimed the release into the hole, and waited for the barriers to shine around it before he gave his order. Through Zahrah, Kanta gave Cadfael what he hoped wouldn't be his last command. "Heat Wave!"

In an instant the forest exploded. The force was lesser than Kanta would have expected, due largely to the Muk and Grimer having only just shown up, but the heat was ridiculous. The updraft from the flames carried with it the death cries of the amorphous sludge that Cadfael and Kanta had just victimized as well as the collateral damage of the native Pokémon.

The air seemed to be growing perpetually hotter and Kanta knew why.

* * *

_My ability.._ Cadfael thought as he climbed from the hole. _That will keep me safe._

The liquid metal frog walked around, taking note of all that he had done. He had turned one of the most fertile places on earth into a wasteland with little more than a thought. He felt the aura of death around him. It was as though a thousand lives had been cried out in pain, but in just a moment they had been silenced.

These thoughts of his own destructive nature continued to flood his mind even as his body dematerialized and returned to his ball.

* * *

"All Pokémon need to return to Poké Balls." Kanta said plainly as he pocketed Cadfael's residence. "Yes, Zahrah, that means you too." He replied to the question she was about to ask as his companion's complied.

Red light flashed, blindingly bright as always. The only Pokémon outside of a ball now was Tia, a fact that she was now rather glad about. She flew straight and steady in the direction that Kanta pointed. Slower than usual because of the extra weight, and in consideration of those that added it.

Kanta looked at the clouds, dejected. The berries that they had just spent hours picking, the tents, and the sleeping bags that each person carried were now the sum total of their supplies. He shook his head. The sky would offer no more relief than sleep had the previous night.

"We're in a tight spot now aren't we?" Greta asked of the Salamence's trainer. She picked her ear as she spoke, trying to get them to pop before the air pressure could.

Kanta motioned for her to follow his example before holding his nose and swallowing hard, forcing his own ears to adjust to the changed altitude. "Well, yeah." He began as she nodded her thanks for the imparting of his experience with the pressure changes caused by Tia's flight. "We lost most of our supplies back there Greta. It was going to be challenging to feed all of us and our Pokémon before, now it's going to be next to impossible."

"I'm sure we'll be fine." Replied Greta with a smile. Kanta didn't respond.

The rest of the ride matched those previous. It too was spent mostly in silence. There were fleeting conversations of the view from the sky. The desolation that the expanding fire had caused as it ignited the trail of flammable sludge left behind by the Poison Pokémon. They saw the melted homes of what used to be a thriving village become a blazing inferno. They looked on in mixed horror and relief as they saw that even if they had landed in the towns on the Sevii Islands, it would have been to no avail as all life had been eradicated by the sludge and poison clouds. They felt less guilty for their failure, but terrible in that their relief came at such a great cost.

The flight wasn't short, but it wasn't too long. They reached Iron Island about an hour before nightfall and began setting up tents immediately, making short work of it and sitting down to rest.

"We should eat what we can." Anabel said after a while. "Our Pokémon too."

The small pocket of flat earth that had become their temporary home lit with the release of a slew of Pokémon. Once the stars had receded from his eyes, Kanta paused. There were way more Pokémon then he had assumed, the most troubling of which was an enormous troll. The Snorlax roared a displeased yawn, its stomach rumbling its agreement with his displeasure.

"Who's Snorlax is this?" Kanta asked quickly as the awakened Sleeping Pokémon looked around for its meal.

"Mine." Lucy said in her usual acidic tone. "What about it?"

"Return it, now." Ordered the trainer, his urgent tone making even Lucy follow. She obliged, raising its ball too send it back before asking for a reason.

"Why? He deserves food too!" Spoke the viper indignantly.

"Do you honestly think that we have enough food to sate that thing's hunger along with ours?" Came his retort. "Snorlax are irritable on good days, worse when they're hungry." His tone changed to one that matched the somber subject that they were on. The others ate as he put his hand on Lucy's shoulder. "I know that it's hard, but the next time you send out your Snorlax, it should be when you release it, just as I will have to with my Heatran. We just can't sustain the diet of a Pokémon like him under our current circumstances."

"B.. But I..." Tears started to fill her eyes. "He... We were..."

"Lucy... I know how much this hurts." Kanta tried to comfort her. "I do. But this has to be-" His hand was slapped away.

"If you won't help, then I'll feed him myself." She decreed once the residual sound of the slap had echoed away.

Kanta sighed. "Fine Lucy. You can try your best, and I wish you luck, but I'll also issue a warning." His face was stern, his gaze unyielding. Their eyes were locked on the others. "If it gets out of control, I will step in in whatever way I see fit."

"Do your worst!" Lucy cried as they turned to the others, joining them in their meager meal.

The group, including Pokémon, ate in earnest. Their meals had been divided into two meals for each of the three days that it would take for them to reach another forest and restock. They would reach Canalave first, but they had decided that they couldn't count on being able to restock in an inhabited area. It was a simple decision to reach, and had been unanimously agreed upon.

After dinner, yawns were shared by all. Pokémon, save for Zahrah, were returned as their trainers began to turn in. The fire was stamped out, and finally, finally, everything seemed calm.

The air suddenly rumbled with the unwelcome sound of an explosion. The native Pokémon seemed displeased by their presence. Geodude began hurling their comrades off of the higher cliffs, sending them down as hardened shrapnel.

One more thing was said by the group, another instant agreement struck by them all. The four adventurers could only exclaim: "Fuck."


	11. Chapter 11 - The Perfect Life

**Alright guys, I finally did it. I. Made. A. Fight. It happened, and I am happy. It wasn't settled by one fucking AOE, and I am pleased. It is a short chapter, but I hope that you all enjoy it. Next chapter will be fun too, but nowhere near as action oriented. It's back to shitty slice of life for me. TT_TT**

* * *

**Chapter 11 – The Perfect Life**

The barriers of their Psychic Pokémon barely holding, our heroes felt shock waves from each and every blast that the Geodude created shake the very foundation of their mountain. Lights flashed across the skies as the angered rocks bellowed their disapproval of the groups presence. This began to dwindle slightly as those that had not jumped to their deaths realized that those before them had not simply fainted from their internal explosions. Still other felt no remorse for those that had killed themselves already, and continued to hurl themselves into the dome of psychic shielding, Self Destructing on impact.

The forces of the wild Pokémon continued to wear themselves thinner and thinner until the few Geodude that were left were either running, or pleading for themselves to be spared the death awarded to their comrades. Graveler and Golem responded by either hurling them at the enemy trainers or smashing them on their own, granting their wish to be afforded a death that differed from those of their brethren.

The last Geodude was thrown at the group just when Zahrah's barrier crippled under her own exhaustion, but with luck and the lightning fast brain of Anabel's Alakazam, it was swiftly dealt with. Alakazam raised his spoons to the cannon volley that had been lobbed their way. His own mind melded with the form of the Geodude, they became nothing more than an extension his own person. All were completely under his control. He spun, flinging the feeble things at a Graveler. As the rubble from both of them began to rain down, it was time to go on the offensive.

Orders flew past the trainer's lips, their Pokémon following without question. First, Greta's brawlers rushed out. Hardened fists flew through stony armor as their daily kata were put to use. Lucy's were next. Her twin snakes spitting out their natural elements at the rocks before them. Anabel's Pokémon were next. Mental masters that sent wave after wave of destructive force. Finally there were the only two Pokémon that Kanta could safely use in this setting. Sakhr joined his female counterpart under Lucy's commands, letting loose blue beams that froze their targets on contact. Zahrah stayed close to the trainers, keeping them safe behind her barrier.

The battle before had been little more than just a waiting game, and as the sun crept below the horizon, their wait was over. An all out attack was waged against the remaining enemies. The air glittered with the diamond dust of the two Milotic. Boulders cracked as Golem and Graveler alike were smashed into them by Fighting and Psychic-type attacks. Acid melted away the rocks and the Pokémon that stood upon them indiscriminately.

At last, only one Pokémon stood against the group. A lone Golem that had polished itself into the shape of a wheel, its shark-like head making the only bump on an otherwise perfectly smooth surface. It directed one, sharp talon toward the Heracross that Greta had ordered to end three Graveler and two other Golem. "BUG!" It cried in a craggy voice that sounded like falling granite. "You and me. Let's go!"

The Heracross tilted his head. "I like sap... If I win will I get sap?" The innocent fighter asked of its opponent, holding his hand up to signal that fighting should cease as they spoke.

"Wha-" The Golem looked upon the bug he was about to crush. It dared to ask him for a reward in the event of his death? "You little insect..." The Golem drew in its arms and tilted its head down. He sat and began rolling in place, building up power behind its finishing move.

"Sap. Sap. Sap." The Heracross said plainly over and over again. His fellows looked on in disbelief as his out of place chant was juxtaposed against the serious sound of the Golem's body scraping against the gravel and rubble beneath him.

The Golem curled tighter and tighter every time he heard that incessant word. Sap. Sap. What the hell did sap have to do with anything. He heard it over and over, but on the tenth time, he just couldn't bear to curl any tighter.

"Heracross what are you doing?" Greta screamed. "Get out of the way!"

The Heracross tilted his head and clicked his horn with a salute. "Sap." He replied with a grin as he took his stance. The Jolly fool stood strong against his opponent, ready for anything, bracing itself for the coming onslaught.

"I'll crush you." The Golem's now warbling voice came. "ROLL OUT!" The rocky beast cried as it launched itself toward the insect that stood in his path. He would have his revenge if it was the last thing that he did.

The enemy Golem barreled toward Heracross. Heracross raised its arms and at the perfect moment to block the just enough of the damage, he brought his arms down, chopping into the wheel of rock, holding it in place, and stopping its rotation.

"My turn." Said the Heracross happily. He wrapped his arms around the Golem's body as best he could, and leaped into the air. He spun around, using the Golem's weight and his own to speed up the process. He was hurting, sure, but that just made him want to fight harder! "Reversal!" He yelled as his right arm let go of the thing he held. He sent it higher, and then kicked off of it toward the ground. He spun again, this time so that he was righted, his feet landing before his head, and turned to look at the falling rock. He jumped.

The Golem roared as he came rocketing downward, his polished surface speeding his decline. The eyes of both combatants locked as they met midair. He looked on in horror as his opponent's horn seemed to glisten even brighter than his now glowing carapace. It was now the only thing that his eyes could see. Then darkness.

Heracross shook the thing from its horn. It was dead like the rest and its blood now coated Heracross's entire body. Everything was quiet. Everyone looked around hurriedly, looking for any other possible enemies. They found only the rubble left behind by those that they had just defeated.

Tears rushed to Greta's eyes as she ran to embrace her Pokémon. Her hug was reciprocated happily, though it meant that now both of them were covered in the blood of the fallen Golem.

After a few, tear-filled minutes, when Greta began to sniffle her tears away, Kanta spoke up. "Come on, Sakhr and I will go with you guys to the ocean. At least salt will dry better than blood."

"That sounds good." Greta said, wiping her crying face with a hemoglobin covered sleeve.

"I agree." Lucy said. "Sea salt is better than sweat."

The ground began to rumble. Rocks tumbled from the heights of the mountain. The entire island shook as though some ancient god was beginning to emerge. The rumbling ceased for a moment, but only just before the thing causing it revealed itself. An enormous Steelix burst through the side of the mountain above, roaring as it knocked rocks and debris away by thrashing its head in every direction.

"Shit!" Exclaimed Lucy. "My Pokémon are useless for this one!" She yelled quickly.

"Return!" Kanta ordered, holding Sakhr's ball out, the usual red flash signifying his compliance as Lucy did the same.

"Kanta, what do we do?" Anabel asked, obviously stricken with fear.

"I don-"

"You leave it to me!" Greta replied, cutting Kanta off. She returned her Heracross, unwilling to see his death today. "Oish! Let's go! Time to shine~!" She yelled to her two remaining party members. She snapped her fingers and pointed at the gargantuan, metal wurm before them. "Bring it down! Medicham, use Focus Punch!"

"CHAM!" he replied, hardening his stance and his gaze.

"Hariyama, I need you to use Close Combat as soon as I send you out again." She decreed to her second Pokémon as she held out his ball.

"Hari!" It responded with a salute before becoming red light again.

She began to run. She was much more agile than her Hariyama, so she would need to do this first. She jumped, bounding and rebounding off of the falling rocks, making sure that her kicks sent them away from her focusing Medicham. The rocks continued to come her way, new ones falling every time the metal titan shook.

Left, then right. Straight up and then right again. The thrill of battle made her heart beat faster. She was enjoying every second of this, with a grin plastered on her face. This is what it felt like to be a super hero. She imagined a cape flowing in the wind, leaving red streaks behind her at every turn.

Her entire body moved like lightning as she scrambled up the side of a long pillar of rock. Every crack in its craggy surface acting as a ladder for the Arena Tycoon. She looked upward the entire time, waiting for the next rock in her path. Another long piece was next. It overlapped for a few feet with the one she was currently on. She wall jumped between the two quickly, rebounding off of each in turn before climbing along the higher of the two further into the sky.

It was the last one. A boulder before her that would be her ride down. She jumped to it and crawled like a spider to get to the higher side. "OISH!" She yelled as she through the ball. "CLOSE COMBAT!" Her order rang out as though she had given it through a megaphone before she allowed herself to rest on the falling rock. The Steelix looked at her with both anger and disbelief. This little human had made it up this far just to help her Pokémon. His gaze showed respect in the last moments that she held it.

Hariyama leaped out of the white hot light that he had been. His eyes locked with those of the Steelix. "I am sorry, but this is the end!" He roared as his fist collided with the Steelix's forehead for the first time. It was hard. His face was made of the same material that a Steelix was always made of, but whatever Ho-oh had done had made it even more resilient. He continued to pound away, dealing little damage to its shining surface.

"Do not be so sure of your power." The Steelix replied with a throaty chortle. "I have been tempered by the flames of the earth, hardened by her force. You are nothing compared to that."

"Maybe. But the earth is alone." Retorted Hariyama as he flipped away from the Iron Snake Pokémon. Behind where he stood, previously hidden from the Steelix's view, was a lone Medicham. He was coming right at the Steelix, his hand enveloped in the light of his energy. "I bring friends!"

"Go for it!" Yelled Greta from her rocky elevator.

"Impressive." The Steelix admitted.

Medicham's fist struck at the same point that Hariyama had focused on. They were a team. They had trained together, sweat together, and worked together for as long as either of them could remember. This was the day that it payed off.

Shock waves resounded off of the Steelix's forehead. The sound of a great gong echoing over the sea. A slight crack. A single, solitary crack showed in his armor.

"Aura Sphere!" Called out a strong, masculine voice. It was followed by a bark and the appearance of a Lucario on Greta's rock, surrounded by an aura so strong that even the members of the team could see it. His Aura flashed outward before condensing between his palms.

"Medicham, Hariyama! Get out of there!" Greta ordered, returning both of her Pokémon.

The teal, glowing ball rocketed toward the Steelix's weak point and exploded on impact. It only caused a bit more damage, but it was enough that the Steelix flinched a bit. They were dealing enough out to make him feel something, and that was quite a feat from where they stood.

The Steelix reared back and roared before letting out an Hyper Beam at the Lucario. Greta was quick to react however, and tackled the Aura Pokémon out of the way of the blast. They landed on another rock safely, but the hyper beam had blasted away their escape route, at least any that could be safely taken by Greta.

Zahrah, Anabel, Kanta, and Lucy suddenly stood beside them on their rock. Zahrah now safely levitating the rock that acted as their vessel. The entire team had a moment to smile as Alakazam materialized. They were all alright. Against all odds, they were going to win.

"Focus Blast Alakazam." Anabel ordered softly.

"Ala~" He began to beat the air with his spoons, forming his own energy into a small sphere of fighting spirit. "KAZAM!" He yelled, bashing the ball of energy toward his foe with a fore-swing that would bring tears of joy to a tennis pro's eyes. It hit, causing the crack in his armor to deepen as it did.

They hadn't been enough to kill it, but the enemy Steelix had fainted, and everyone stared, dumbfounded as an Ultra Ball flew to meet it. Everyone's eyes slowly trailed it as it signaled that the ball had made its capture, and when Lucy exclaimed happily that she had done it, it was obvious that they believed her to be insane.

The rock gently floated to the ground where Lucy ran to grab her new Pokémon. She was replaced by the trainer of the Lucario. An older teen, around the same age as Lucy and Kanta. He wore a sharp, blue blazer over a black T-shirt that was accented with some odd yellow embroidery with a pair of brown jeans.

"Hi there." He began. "My name's Riley."


End file.
